I am experienced roleplayer returning to online roleplay after 10+ year break. I have missed roleplaying and the creative outlet it is for me. I am interested in casual roleplay. I consider myself a decent writer and I will put effort into my writing. I am not into writing a novel for one post though. Descriptive, character building, engaging, yes. I will always write at least 2 paragraphs unless it is a quick fire session revolving around dialogue over private messages. I am a fairly laid back person and don't want to be a grammar nazi. I believe in quality over quantity. Roleplaying is a hobby and a escape from real life pressures.
Genres I am interested in: Fantasy Middle Ages Science Fiction Vampires Shapeshifters Crime Drama
Fandoms I am interested in: Pokemon Harry Potter Anita Blake Dragonriders of Pern Star Wars
I don't mind roleplaying romance but I am not looking for smut. It has to make sense for the roleplay. I am okay with a fade to black moment instead of roleplaying it out. For me its about the story and the character. I am open to roleplaying it out.
I am in the Pacific Standard Timezone. I work full time and will be seen in the evenings and weekends online.
Samantha frowned at Skye. Why did she ask for their input if she had already decided how they would deploy? Samantha was a little annoyed with Skye but she knew better than to take that out on other team members. Samantha gave Skye a dark look. She had brought in a new team member? Samantha couldn’t help but wonder if Skye was coddling her after what happened in the last op. She had gotten her act together and Sophie had given her the go ahead to resume active duty. Samantha turned and regarded Purna with a raised eyebrow. She gave him a smirk and nodded. Looked like she would need to make some tweaks to the drones and gear and give Purna and Eloise a crash course in how to set it up. She would do what she could to make it simple and fast for them. Her eyes moved over to Eloise, the new face in the room. She gave her a nod of acknowledgement. Sam’s smile grew somewhat mischievous as she would get to know her a bit as she trained her on the infiltration gear that her and Purna would now need to deploy in her stead. Samantha knew from observing the training she had been doing with Purna that Eloise used a bow. She had an idea for some special gear for her but she didn’t know how much time they would have before they left. Skye had moved the briefing onto the others who had voiced concerns or ideas.
Chuck couldn’t blame Duke for being infatuated with Freya. He was in love with her. It made sense that his dog approved. It was a good thing they liked each other. Chuck shuddered to contemplate what his life would be like if Duke objected to Freya or vice versa. Chuck shook his head in amusement that his dog got greeted before he did. Chuck laughed Freya told him if they divorced she wanted the dog. Chuck returned the kiss Freya freely gave him with enthusiasm before he leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Well I guess that means you will have to marry me and keep us then. Duke and I are a package deal.” Chuck wrapped his arm around Freya’s shoulder and sat next to her during the meeting.
Chuck turned his attention to the briefing but was keeping track of Duke since he was off leash. He rarely leashed Duke since he was so well trained. Chuck kept track of Duke’s progress around the room as he checked on various team members. He noted the Duke simply passed by Skye but pressed against her leg on his way to Jaime. Chuck looked amused when Jamie startled as Duke went to him and demanded attention from Freya’s brother. Duke kept going around the room. He noticed Duke stopped to sniff at Eloise. He hoped she didn’t mind dogs.
Chuck eventually removed his arm and crossed them, his face morphing into a serious expression as the briefing told them how bad the situation was. Space? Hell no! He was not being crammed into a tin can that was built for people half his size. With his luck he would try to stretch and put a hole in the fucking wall sucking all the oxygen out. He turned to Freya a little worried that Skye would take her on the mission to space. Space was a hostile environment and Chuck knew enough to know that he was not trained for it or ready for it. He was not claustrophobic but he didn’t like small spaces because of how big he was. Duke had returned and was leaning heavily against Chuck’s legs. Chuck reached down to rub him reassuringly behind the ears. He was never sure in moments like this if he was supporting his dog or his dog was supporting him. Chuck understood Skye’s point of view. He was suddenly grateful for Samantha’s upgrade on his armor. His armor had needed to be completely rebuilt after he only managed to salvage what was left of the leg armor. Samantha had completely redesigned his armor for better defensive and offensive power. He had been training with it since it was finished to get used to using it. It was not quite as flexible and maneuverable as his old set but it would stand up to more abuse and deal out more damage.
Samantha sighed and tried to school her face into neutrality. She had felt off since her near death experience. Skye had not been acting quite like her normal self either. Both of them had been through a lot since Kaitaki. Skye had found out she basically had an evil clone who was a megalomaniac who wanted to take out the world. She had been on the run from the agencies she had worked for and trusted. She had to kill someone who looked like her. They had to stop the end of the world and here they were again just a few short weeks later. Samantha couldn’t help but feel as if Skye was pushing her away somehow. They had all been busy trying to figure out what Rose’s next move would be. Samantha couldn’t put her finger on what was bothering her about Skye. She knew Skye had been through more than she had. She knew that Skye was excellent at compartmentalizing and pushing away the emotional stuff. There was nothing in Skye’s behavior that was out of the ordinary for her. Samantha kept her thoughts to herself. Maybe this was one of those times where she was obsessing over a behavior that was not there. She still struggled with social cues occasionally. Samantha couldn’t help the feeling that somehow Skye was saying goodbye or accepting that she was not coming back from this mission. That was not acceptable to Samantha. She sighed in frustration. She couldn’t come out and ask Skye what was up. She knew that Skye would deny it and the others would think Samantha had lost her damn mind. That was one of the reasons she had not shared her near death experience with many people. Conventional wisdom said that the experience was her trauma of losing her parents making itself known. Samantha’s eyes went around the room. She smiled a little to see Freya sitting with Chuck. It made her happy to see Freya content and happy. Samantha decided to take her cues from Freya about Skye who was treating this mission as business as usual.
Skye wrapped up the meeting.
Skye: "Right. We'll ship out on the Galaxy that Blue Sword have here and rendezvous with the airship once ready. We've got a ghost transmitter for our little run, and you have your last chance here to sort yourselves out. We’ll be moving in eight hours. You can catch up on sleep in the plane once we’re done. EVA team, I’ll brief you shortly, so stay here. Rest of you, you’re all dismissed.”
Samantha grinned as she now knew how long she would have. She had just enough time to get the gear for Eloise made with a little help. She would tweak the insertion gear and teach them to use it on the blimp. She would catch up with Purna and Eloise then.
LZ Zulu, Somewhere in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
Samantha made sure all the gear made it onto the trucks. She was mesmerized by the scenery. It was hot and she felt like she was melting somewhat. She was grateful that her complexion tanned instead of burning thanks to her Hispanic mother. She was enjoying the heat after being in the cold for so long. Samantha had been to Africa before but she had only briefly visited various hotspots. She had been deployed mostly in the trouble spots around the Middle East. When she had been in Africa, she had been in cities. She had never had the opportunity to enjoy the animals and wilds of Africa. While it was scenic, Samantha was self aware of the fact that she would always be a city girl at heart. She would appreciate nature but she felt out of place in such a rural place without all the trappings of society and technology at her disposal. She liked modern plumbing, air conditioning, and electricity. Thank you very much.
Samantha was grateful when the bumpy uncomfortable ride across the savannah ended. The scenery was the only perk on that leg of the trip in Samantha’s opinion. She was helping off load the gear from the trucks. She was passing by Vincent and Skye as she overheard their conversation and met Skye’s mischievous look. Samantha gave Vincent a wicked grin as she kept carrying the box with the new gear she had made Eloise towards the blimp. “Sorry Vincent, If Athena decides to kick your ass, I am not saving you! You do know she is Freya’s sister right? I have seen her action. Sorry buddy you are on your own!” Samantha laughed maniacally all the way to the loading ramp for the blimp. She made sure that box made it into the blimp before returning for the crate of infiltration gear she would need to teach Eloise and Purna how to use.
Chuck had enjoyed being close to Freya on the Galaxy. He figured this was as close as he would get to a domestic scene with Freya for some time. So he did what good Marines do… he embraced and enjoyed it. Duke had settled down easily on Freya’s chest for the duration of the trip. Chuck had helped Freya turn the tables on Jamie. The two of them ganged up on Jamie about when he was going to meet a nice girl. Chuck avoided the topic of Athena’s very fine derriere. He knew a girl trap when he saw one. The team didn’t need his help to share butt jokes and puns. As evidenced by the Flying Butt remarks by their fearless leader. Chuck was helping unload the crates of gear and weapons. His muscles put to use as he stacked the heavy boxes into the blimp’s cargo hold. It didn’t take long to unload everything they had brought with him. He had offered to help Samantha but she had brushed him off. Chuck hid a mischievous grin from Freya as Duke yanked on his leash wanting to explore the new and exotic scents that were assailing his nose. Freya had offered to mind Duke while Chuck had helped unload the gear from the trucks. Chuck knew just how powerful Duke was. If Freya had not been a fairly strong woman Duke would have yanked her over in his enthusiasm. Chuck went in search of Freya once more and found her in Athena’s penthouse suite on the top floor of the blimp’s cabin. This blimp was ridiculous. Most blimps had a single solitary cabin that was the control room. This thing was like a small flying castle. He liked the stealth capabilities of inserting from the stealth coated blimp. Hopefully their target wouldn’t see them coming before they got the drop on them.
Samantha waited till they had all checked in and were in the air before going in search of Eloise. She had slipped away from the main group in the confusion of the blimp’s departure. Most of the team was hanging out in Athena’s sparkly play room. Samantha was never the princess type. She was more rock and roll and grunge than pretty princess. She found Eloise in the vehicle bay eating a snack of some kind. Samantha made sure to make a little noise. She didn’t want to startle her. If Eloise was anything like Samantha, she had probably sought out a little space to catch her breath. Samantha had come a long way from the lone wolf operative she had been in the CIA. Skye had taught her to work as a member of a team and value it. Sam still had moments where people didn’t make sense to her or she felt overwhelmed by them socially. She wanted to talk to Eloise before they needed to jump out of this perfectly repaired and functional blimp in a vehicle drifting to the ground on parachutes potentially under fire. Yeah… now would be good. She still needed to teach Purna and Eloise how to use the gear.
Samantha approached where Eloise was sitting. She smiled up at her in her perch. She waved her down. “Hello Eloise. I am Samantha or Sam. Can you come down here? I have something for you. I also need to show you and Purna how to use the infiltration gear.”
Samantha waited for Eloise to join her. She then handed over a very modern looking tactical quiver full of arrow shafts. Samantha explained how the new piece of gear worked.
“I understand that your callsign is Archer and that you like to use a bow. I didn’t have a lot of time to get any gear ready for you. This is not much but I wanted you to give you something to welcome you to the team. This is a very special quiver and arrows. The shafts are all a lightweight aluminum alloy blend with aerodynamic fletching. The shafts are all identical. They have a threaded end that will screw into the arrow tip. The quiver has a mechanism that will attach the arrowhead you ask for. I sent an update to your armor system so it should work with your HUD. You can subvocalize or select what you want to fire from the menu. The possibilities for speciality arrows are only as vast as our imagination and what I can engineer into them. The quiver holds 40 arrows. I didn’t have a great deal of time so I went for simple and what I knew I could get done. You have ten arrows of each type, acid, electrical, explosive, and armor piercing. The acid vial on the arrow tip will break and spray acid on your target. It will eat through almost anything carbon based. The electrical arrow discharges a volt strong enough to take out most electronics that are not hardened against electrical surges. You can use them against soft targets but its much stronger than a taser. It might kill what you hit. The armor piercing arrows are barbed and strong enough to punch through most operative armor. The explosive tips use a special mix I got from Boomer. It will put a sizable hole in what you hit.” Samantha passed it over as she finished explaining the gear. She shrugged a little and looked down and away. “I am sorry I couldn’t do better with so little time. Welcome to Raven Squad.”
Samantha finally got Purna and Eloise together to discuss how to use the infiltration hacking gear. “The drones just need to be activated and let loose. I reprogrammed them to seek out targets of opportunity. They can be controlled remotely by Rafael and Enri to provide close air surveillance support as well. However if you target the communications tower. You will need to take off the access panel and strip the main wire of its casing. Then simply attach this box to the wire. That will allow Rafael and Enri to take over their communications and hack gear remotely from the base. It will give them a hardwire connection that the PLA can’t sever without physically disconnecting it and they have to find it first.” She made sure they understood how to attach the communications box. She showed them videos and diagrams of what it might look like. If they had the opportunity it would certainly help the hackers sow dissension among the PLA. Samantha had done that once on one of their ops. Since then Artemis had hardened their communications against wireless hacking. This would allow them to send troops in the wrong direction or feed them conflicting orders. Or shut down their communications altogether. The drones would seek out automated heavy weapon platforms such as SAM launchers and automated gun turrets.
Alexander had spent the week trying to be a present and reassuring force at team headquarters. He had made himself available to talk to any of the staff that needed reassurance. He had made a point to eat all his meals in the staff dining room. Most of the staff, while shocked, had taken the exposure of the CEO as a good thing. While there was uncertainty in the air, most of the staff were shocked that the CEO had been able to get away with so much for so long. Alexander’s presence inside Valkyrie seemed to have a stabilizing and reassuring impact on the majority of the regular staff. The senior leadership and those in supervisory positions were the ones expressing the most anxiety and concerns over the future.
Alexander was surprised to get a very encrypted and personal reply back from Lipusz. It pained him to admit that he needed the help. The corruption he had found at the heart of the team went all the way to the top. He suspected there were still a few more players hiding in the shadows on the board of directors. He didn’t know who to trust. He refused to take the fall for assholes who were putting everyone who worked for the team at risk with their selfish and greedy behavior and choices. Alexander made the heart breaking choice to send Arianna away. He didn’t want her to get caught up in the chaos that was descending on Valkyrie at the moment. All the team’s assets and contracts had been frozen pending the investigation. They had been given enough leeway to continue business as usual. Arianna had fully integrated with her augmentations now. Shinochi would monitor her progress but she no longer needed daily care. Alexander argued that it was time for her to return and finish her degree. Arianna had argued that she wanted to be there for him. He had won the argument that he would feel better knowing that she was out of harm’s way. He didn’t want her to be dependent on her mother. He paid for her to move back into the dorm and for her tuition. Arianna had left for Los Angeles when he left for training in French Guiana.
The media storm was being handled by Katherine and her team. The team’s response to the overwhelming number of interview requests had been no comment that due to the ongoing investigation and legal case against the former CEO the corporation was legally unable to comment on the proceedings at this time. This response, while appropriate and required by law, frustrated the media who had taken to using experts in the fields of corporate law to speculate on Valkyrie’s response to the situation and what had led to it. The response from the public was just as volatile and chaotic. There were those who gave sympathetic overwhelming support to the staff at Valkyrie, others who were quick to vilify all of Valkyrie’s leadership with the same brush, as if Brendel’s actions had tainted all of the Team’s leadership. Then there were those who didn’t really care what the CEO had done. They just wanted to know the racing team’s status. Katherine had confirmed for the media that the team would be at the Luna race.
Alexander was with the small group from Valkyrie that would be going with the team to the moon. Normally the racing team traveled with a large group of almost 100 people. There would be a significantly smaller group traveling to the moon. Alexander was going as the leadership and engineering portion of the team. Helga Stumpf was coming as the mechanical lead with Juan Ramirez, Maximilian Gruber, and Igna Podnieks. Dr Montgomery was coming as the team doctor with team paramedic Konrad Bodawski to support him. There were 15 security guards coming that would double as support staff. None of Katherine’s team could be spared to come with the team but the media presence was expected to be lighter on the moon since it was still a location that required permission and was considered a restricted air space. The two team pilots brought the total number of team members going to the moon to 24 people.
Dorian had been more upset over recent events with Valkyrie than Paul. He had been with the team longer and was concerned on how these events would impact his upcoming retirement. Dorian was more concerned about how the negative media attention could impact his own career and endorsement deals. Dorian had expressed his dismay over the ongoing investigation and reinforced his ignorance of the CEO’s actions. Dorian was worried that his career would be painted with a tainted brush. That is not what he wanted as his racing legacy. Dorian was angry, frustrated, and worried about the situation.
Paul had been disgusted to find out that corruption had been so rampant in the leadership of the team. Paul was grateful that it had been exposed and that justice was being pursued. For Paul, it reinforced that he could trust Knight. The agreement between Knight and his mother Alicia was known to four people, Leopold Koch, Alexander Knight, Alicia Mulder, and himself. When asked about his feelings on it, Paul simply answered that for him it was reassuring to know that not even the team leadership was above the law. He then went on to say that he had been advised that he couldn’t discuss an ongoing law enforcement investigation and couldn’t comment further.
The entire group had been sent to the European Union Space Agency for training on how to live and travel in space. They had several days of simulated training at headquarters and then a full day of training at the European Union Space Agency before boarding the team’s space plane for travel to the moon. They were taught how to get into and out of their spacesuits. They were drilled on it till they could do it relatively quickly. They were put in a simulator to learn how to use the space suits thrusters to navigate in zero gravity. They were taught how to use the special zero gravity toilets which made them all laugh at the ridiculous situation they found themselves in. They were reminded that fluids didn’t fall in no gravity they floated! The point that the world didn’t answer to the laws of gravity was driven home throughout the training. By the end, everyone understood how to eat and drink in gravity, use the toilet, airlock safety, how to navigate and maneuver in no gravity, and what all the various alarms were on the ship. They all learned the dangers of traveling and living in space and what they were expected to do in an emergency.
Team Valkyrie was blessed to have the European Union Space Agency as part of their team make up. That meant that the team’s plane had been designed for use in space as well. The plane was designed to act as the team’s home away from home while on the moon. There would be limited onsite housing but the team members who chose to could sleep on the plane. The plane had space tight seals and airlocks allowing it to be converted for space flight. An external fuel tank would provide the extra fuel necessary for the long distance to the moon and back. The special plane used a biofuel and had solar panels with back up batteries to provide the electrical power needed on the plane. A small water recycling and filtration system helps extend the usage of the water used on board. The plane had been stocked with pre-made grab and go meals by the team chef in vacuum packaging designed with zero gravity and reheating in mind. There were two large refrigeration units accessible from the cabins on both decks just past the luggage storage area. Bottled drinks, water, and snacks were stocked in the on board pantries. The plane’s crew had already undergone training and were certified for space flight but they had to undergo refreshment training as well. With four pilots and four stewardesses brought their total team complement to 28 people.
It had been a very long day at the space agency. Everyone would be staying in visitors quarters for the evening. Their plane was due to launch early the next morning from the European Union Spaceport. There were now regular flights back and forth to the moon. The people who worked in space still had to rotate back to Earth for some time in gravity. Artificial gravity slowed bone degradation but still didn’t prevent it. Researchers were still trying to figure out how to get around the bone degradation that happened when people spent too long in zero gravity. It would take them just over 24 hours to reach the moon. They would get almost a full week on the moon for the team to acclimate and practice. That night Alexander had called and chatted with Arianna to see how she was settling back in at UCLA. He also called and checked in with Mabel before the team left the next morning. Mabel was left fielding things while he was gone. He knew she was capable but he was glad she would have Leopold’s support while he was gone. They would have communications with Earth but he wouldn't have much free time while they were on the moon. Alexander was almost grateful for the timing of the Luna Race and the fact he needed to be a member of the team to go. He had left things in as good of a condition as he could. Katherine had been doing an excellent job of handling all media inquiries. Any legal inquiries were being handled by the overworked legal team.
Alexander was grateful that he could tune out all the problems he left behind on Earth and focus on the problems here with him on the moon. The trip to the moon had gone exactly as planned with no issues. The team had quickly fallen into a routine. Paul and Dorian would take the ships out and based on what issues they had they worked to fix the issues. They both needed the time to adjust to the changes that had to be made for the ship to work well in the Lunar environment. There had been unexpected issues like dust clogging valves in the engine. Regolith damaging the coating on the outside of the ship. They managed to eke out a little more efficiency in the energy systems. It had been great for Alexander’s peace of mind to focus on engineering issues instead of personnel matters for a while. Alexander had avoided the public areas and kept himself firmly ensconced in the team’s area. He didn’t feel like answering any questions for reporters. He was quite content to focus on the Luna race.
Social Media
Team Valkyrie AGR Sport has been training diligently for the Luna race. We hope you will support pilots, Dorian Hornfleur and Paul Mulder, as they race on the moon. Be sure to tune in on Sunday for all the race excitement!
[Pictures of the Valkyrie ships racing along during practice on the moon.]
OfficeDrone#12:I hope they are ready. The CEO business has been such a distraction. SuperfanAGR54: I hope they do well at the Lunar race. DantheMan:I guess we will see if they can put this behind them and do well. BatDave: We will have to wait and see. Superfan2075:Hoping for the best. DadBod89:That is a fairly big distraction. I hope they really are ready. Hater101:They are gonna botch it. The timing of the CEO was to distract from how poorly they are going to do on the moon. Papabear34:I will wait and see how they do under adversity. The mark of a true champion will be the ability to put all this distraction aside and still race well. Nana2050: I am rooting for Team Valkyrie! GeorgeFly: For their sakes I hope Paul and Dorian do well. ValkyrieFan56:I support Team Valkyrie! Weedhead81: I will smoke a bowl in your honor. SexyM@m@5: I am cheering for you Dorian! Paulmulder4eva: I am cheering for Paul! Britball12: I am want results. !YouSlow!:Race results will be telling. xImFasterthanUx:I agree the race results will be very telling of Valkyrie’s readiness and ability to rise above the shit show that has been their leadership. AGInthusiast:Watching to see what happens. micheal650004: I wouldn’t miss this race for anything now. Bertha:Valkyrie is going to crash and burn under the pressure.
Paul had stayed in Portugal an extra day so he could collect on his bet with Hyeon-Ae. He smiled at the memory. He had dragged her out to miniature golf. They had played 18 holes while competing for the best score. He then treated her to lunch. Hyeon-Ae had invited Cassie along. He didn’t mind so much. He had a suspicion that Cassie was on the same mission to loosen the Ice Queen up and see if she knew how to have fun. It had been an enjoyable excursion. He had flown back to Germany late Monday.
He knew he needed to train for the Luna race. It was going to be a whole different set of skills. He had never raced on the moon before. He wanted to get as much training in as he could. Taking the extra day in Portugal had been a luxury but there was something to be said for relaxation and stepping away from racing occasionally too. He walked into headquarters early the next morning. He was scheduled to work with the trainers for his 8:00 am morning torture session. He had slugged a protein shake down before his workout. He went from the gym to the simulator. He did an hour in the simulator. The thought process behind it was to help push his racing skills when he was already tired. Then he would be less apt to make a major mistake when it counted. It was another way to find out where his weaknesses were and where and under what conditions his attention might wander. He couldn’t afford that on the moon. The moon was a very hostile and unforgiving environment. He couldn’t afford to make any mistakes on the moon. After climbing out of the simulator, he was once again dripping in sweat. He slugged the Zap electrolyte drink that Agnes, his physical trainer slapped into his hand. He thanked her and sipped at the second one. Agnes seemed pleased with his progress. She left him to shower with orders to get some breakfast. They had tried having him eat breakfast first but he had puked a few times. So they had gone with the electrolyte and protein shake instead. That worked for him.
It was almost 10:30am before Paul finally made it to the cafeteria. Most of the employees were already in their offices. The cafeteria was usually almost empty. Paul was surprised to see quite a few people chatting in groups around the cafeteria. Paul had grabbed a plate and helped himself to breakfast following the meal plan the team nutritionist, Dr. Thorkelson had given him. He had a whole wheat breakfast croissant with veggie bacon and sausage. Some fruit and yogurt. He accompanied it with a glass of juice. Paul finished his food quickly and dealt with his tray and plates. He grabbed a glass of water and looked around more carefully.
Something was happening. The employees in the cafeteria were tense and nervous. They kept watching the door to the cafeteria. He noticed that the employees in the cafeteria were from the human resources and administration departments. More of them continued to trickle in. Paul’s tablet rang out with a notification indication. He pulled it out and noticed a priority email from Alexander. He opened it and it was a short video from Alexander explaining that the CEO had been arrested on fraud, embezzlement, and harassment charges. Alexander explained that government investigators and agents were combing through headquarters collecting evidence and interviewing employees. He told employees to tell the truth and cooperate with investigators. He said that the charges would be acknowledged publicly and that Brendel had conspired with Maier, the former head of human resources, to defraud the company. Alexander said that both men would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. He apologized to the staff on behalf of the leadership for anyone who had been hurt by the actions of these two former employees. Alexander went on to say that his priority was justice for those injured and preventing this kind of abuse from happening again. Alexander asked for the patience and support of the staff as they figured things out for moving the team forward. He hoped this would be the end of the drama for the team. He ended the video with a reminder that this was an ongoing legal investigation that they needed to cooperate with authorities and were forbidden from talking about it to anyone.
This was the last thing Paul wanted to deal with this week. He was leaving in a few days for the Luna race. He had to attend mandatory training at the European Union Space Agency with the rest of the team before they could leave. He was already doing preliminary training here at headquarters. He was scheduled to use the pool for training in a simulated weightless environment that afternoon. They were traveling to the moon with the plan to give the team a week on the moon to work out any kinks. Paul knew that there would be questions from sponsors, fans, and it might impact some of his endorsement deals. Paul rubbed at his face with his hands in frustration. He needed to call his agent Armando Batista. Paul left the cafeteria and went to his apartment on site. He logged into his computer tablet and sent a video call request to his agent. He waited as the arrow circled around as the call connected. Armando was frowning at him as he picked up the call.
Armando: “Paul what is going on at Valkyrie? I have already received a dozen calls from the press and a few from sponsors. I started letting them all go to voicemail.”
Paul didn’t bother to hide his frustration. Logically he knew this was not Alexander’s fault but he had to admit that it had been one media crisis to the next since he started. Although he would rather the CEO be removed if the charges were true, there had to be something to it. The authorities didn’t issue arrest warrants for men of Brendel’s stature lightly. Regardless of the validity of the case against the CEO there was fallout for Paul. There were those who would say that his taint painted everyone in the organization in a bad light. Paul was stuck with the fallout no matter what he said or did.
Paul: “I need your advice on how to handle this Armando.” Paul shared what he knew of the situation that was happening at Valkyrie with Armando. He needed to know so that he could help Paul manage the fallout of the situation. He only gave him the broad strokes that were being shared with the media. He didn’t need to be implicated in inappropriate behavior during this investigation.
Armando looked stunned and then angry. Then he looked thoughtful. Paul waited for him to process the news. Armando looked as if he had come to a decision.
Armando: “My first question is what means the most to you? Do you want me to say anything to salvage your endorsements or do you want to support Knight and Valkyrie? You might lose some endorsements in the short term. This will eventually blow over but you could damage your relationship with Valkyrie if you say the wrong thing at the moment. It could hurt your credibility with sponsors later on. It could hurt chances at changing teams later if you appear too eager to jump ship.”
Paul had never even considered that if he looked after his own interest first that the team might take that poorly. He believed Alexander would understand but Paul didn’t race for the money. He had an inheritance from his father and mother. The endorsements were so he could earn his own money. He took pride in leaving his inheritance untouched and earning what he spent. Paul sighed knowing his decision had been made.
Paul: “I am going to back Knight and the team while denying any knowledge of Brendel’s actions. If it costs me endorsements so be it. It is the right thing to do. If you get any more media requests, just let them know that I will be releasing a personal statement shortly. I will be taking no questions regarding this for now. It is a legal matter and I am not at liberty to discuss an ongoing case. Knight made that clear in his video message to the staff. Give the same message to my endorsements and sponsors. If they wish to speak with me directly, ask them for their patience as I am focused on the Luna race. If they still want to talk to me directly, they will have to wait till I am back from the moon.”
Armando winced knowing he had a ton of work ahead of him. Paul was not his only client. He also would lose out on the commission and his cut of any endorsements that fell through due to this situation.
Armando: “I will take care of it but this is going to eat up my week. I have other clients to take care of as well, Paul.”
Paul gave Armando a cold look. Armando came highly recommended and had done an excellent job until now. He raised an eyebrow at Armando. His voice was cold as he replied.
Paul: “I sure hope you are not implying that you deserve a bonus or extra pay for doing your job. You get paid very well to take care of my interests, Armando. If it is too much work for you, I can hire a new agent. Someone who has the time to take care of my interests.”
Armando began to back pedal with a panicked look. Paul was one of his more lucrative and easy going clients typically.
Paul made a note to begin looking for a new agent. He no longer trusted Armando fully. He didn’t have time to deal with it before Luna. He would wait and see how well Armando handled the current crisis before making a solid decision on it.
Armando gave Paul a placating look and gesture. “Sheesh you are high strung today. I am just being honest with you Paul. I will get it done. Don’t get all bent out of shape.”
Paul shook his head yep. He was going to be looking for a new agent.
Paul snapped out. “Just get it done.” He cut the call. He then dialed his mother’s number. He waited for the call to connect.
Alicia picked almost immediately with a concerned look on her face.
Alicia: “Paul what’s wrong?”
Paul quickly laid out what was happening at the company. He once more kept it to what was being shared with the public. So the broad strokes of what was happening. He explained how his interests were caught in the middle. He explained how his conversation with Armando had gone.
Paul: “Mom I no longer trust him. I need to find a new agent. I need someone I can trust. I need someone who is only handling my interests I think. If you think of anyone can you let me know. I wanted you to know what was going on since I believe the press will contact you about it. I wanted you to hear it from me. I am going to back the team and Knight. I am going to release my own statement here shortly. I didn’t want you to get caught by surprise.”
Alicia: “Thank you for calling me Paul.” She paused examining Paul’s face. “Are you alright darling?”
Paul sighed and let his frustration show. “Yes I am just frustrated. Every time it seems the drama has been left behind and things start to go well another issue is dropped. I am beginning to think either I am cursed or Knight is!”
Alicia laughed and gave Paul a sympathetic look. “Well it sounds like there were forces behind the scenes working against Knight. If there are any more, hopefully this will drive them back into the shadows. Knight seems to do a good job of rooting them out. I for one am very happy about that.”
Alicia gave Paul a loving smile with a hard glint in her eye that hinted at the momma bear she was.
Paul was a little surprised at his mother’s take on things. He sighed as he realized she was right of course. If there were elements trying to profit off the team, who knows what kind of damage or sabotage they might have opened the team up to? Better to root it out. That didn’t mean that in the short term Paul wouldn’t suffer some fall out as well. Paul gave a sigh doing his best to let the tension go. He gave his mother a big smile.
Paul: “I am glad I had the chance to talk to you before I go to the moon. Will you root for me?”
Alicia gave him an exasperated smile. “Of course I will. Right after I attend mass and pray for your safe return.”
Paul’s expression softened. He knew she worried about him because she cared. “I love you mama.”
Alicia's smile grew and anyone could see the beauty that had attracted Audrick Mulder in that smile. “I love you too. I wish you a good race my son.”
Paul smiled and nodded. “I will come for dinner when I get back.”
Alicia smiled and nodded. “I look forward to it. I have to go. Travel safely.”
Paul nodded as he told her. “I will.” The screen disconnected.
Paul spent some time writing what he wanted to say down. He tweaked it and edited it a few times before he decided to record it. He was careful to avoid any slanderous language. He made sure he used alleged charges. He was careful to be supportive of Knight and the team. He wanted to make his stance clear to all his fans and sponsors. He didn’t want to leave any speculation out there that he was looking for a new ride. Paul was quite happy at Valkyrie. If they could just put all this drama and upheaval behind them, he believed that they could accomplish anything. When you think about all that they had already overcome so far this season, Knight was not doing too badly. Things would hopefully get better. He truly did trust Knight to get them out of this if he could just weather the media storm. Paul posted the statement shortly after noon. He wasn’t feeling very hungry but forced a high protein snack down before heading off to his afternoon training session for Luna.
Paul posted his statement a little after noon. He had spent some time returning emails. He had some endorsement deals that had been pending with an athletic shoe company and a sunglass company. They had both withdrawn their endorsement offers due to the bad press Valkyrie was receiving. Paul gave them a polite understanding email back. He received a personal email from Artie at Enigma Lux who informed Paul that he was not pulling his endorsement contract. He was going to continue to support Team Valkyrie. Paul wondered how this might impact the fundraiser he had been planning for the foundation. He would have to wait and see. Some of his other contracts for endorsements had expressed concerns or pulled ads but because the work had already been completed for the advertising and paid. It really didn’t impact Paul as much. It just meant less publicity for a while.
Paul left for his afternoon simulation training feeling frustrated and anxious. At least he would be physically active. He hoped that helped with the anxiety he was feeling. He wondered how Dorian was faring. He was supposed to be at the pool for simulation training as well. He hoped he had an opportunity to check in with him.
Social Media
Paul Mulder @valkyriepaul
This is a special press release by Paul Mulder of Team Valkyrie AGR Sport.
[It is a video of Paul wearing a team polo shirt. He looks classically handsome as always with a serious expression on his face.]
“Hello Formula AG Fans. This is Paul Mulder of Team Valkyrie AGR Sport. I am releasing this statement because I have had an overwhelming number of people contacting the team, my agent, and myself, asking questions. This is the only statement I will give regarding the current investigation into the former CEO of the Team, Peter Brendel.”
Paul paused and looked directly into the camera. He hoped it felt like he was meeting the eyes of the person watching. He wanted to come across as sincere and earnest.
“First this is an active and ongoing legal investigation. I am not at liberty to discuss this case or disclose any information about the investigation at all. So please do not ask me to give you any information because I can’t and I won’t.”
He paused and hoped he came across as emphatic and shut down that line of questioning.
“I have been asked for my response to these allegations and the ongoing investigation. I can only give you my personal opinion and my personal feelings on this matter. This is my own opinion and has in no way been solicited or even suggested by team leadership. My response is the same I am sure many others have. Disbelief that someone in a position of such sacred trust would abuse it so vilely. I stand firmly with the Valkyrie Crew Chief, Alexander Knight. I believe he has the best interests of the team at heart. I believe it is his integrity and diligence that has brought so much corruption to light from within the team. I trust in his decision to bring this matter out into the open. I find it comforting that not even the CEO of the company is above the law and that there are employees here at Team Valkyrie willing to see that justice is done for those who have been wronged. I believe that the alleged actions of Peter Brendel and Bernard Maier were in no way sanctioned by the leadership of Team Valkyrie AGR Sport. I trust Alexander Knight and Leopold Koch to guide the team through this crisis. I have found Alexander Knight to be a man of great personal integrity and honor. It is unfortunate that his good name has been tied to so much controversy here at Team Valkyrie. I have found Mr. Knight to be a man of high moral character and strong convictions. I am comforted to know that I have Mr. Knight watching out for me.”
He paused and looked into the camera once more with a sad but serious smile on his face.
“To all the Team Valkyrie fans, I hope you will support the team during this trying time. I know it can be hard to trust a team when you see something like this happen. I hope you put your faith in the fact that the Team is being as transparent and as honest as they can be with you, the public, to heart. I hope I can count on your continued support. I will need it. The team is headed for the moon, for the Luna race. It will be my first time racing on the moon. I am training hard but there is a lot to learn. The moon is a very different environment and race altogether. The arrest of Peter Brendel is a distraction none of need at this critical time. I hope to do well at Luna. I hope Team Valkyrie will rise once more and be deserving of your trust and support. I am not going anywhere. I hope I have answered your question. Next stop… The Moon!”
He gave a more confident look and a thumbs up before ending the video.
OfficeDrone#12:Paul is a standup guy. SuperfanAGR54: Well Paul made his stance very clear. DantheMan:I am surprised by Paul’s choice. BatDave: Respect for Paul Superfan2075:#respect DadBod89:It says something that Paul is backing Knight so solidly. Hater101:Yeah right! Valkyrie’s press secretary probably wrote and edited that for him. I don’t believe it. Papabear34:I don’t know what to think. Nana2050: Again we see respect for Knight. GeorgeFly:Respect Paul for standing by his team. ValkyrieFan56:We support you Paul! Weedhead81: #Respect SexyM@m@5: I wonder if Dorian will release a statement too? Paulmulder4eva: I support you Paul! I [heart emoji] You! Britball12: Yeah I believe Paul is just spouting the team line there. !YouSlow!:It should never have come to this. This should have been dealt with internally long before this point. It will be interesting when we get full details of the investigation. xImFasterthanUx:I respect Paul for standing by his team. Not sure I believe they didn’t ask him to make a statement in support though. AGInthusiast:What timing! The Luna Race is arguably one of the most popular races of the year. micheal650004: Respect for Paul and Valkyrie for how they are handling this difficult situation. Bertha:I agree with YouSlow. Things should never have gotten this bad at Valkyrie. Where was the oversight from the Board of Directors? Nobody404:Paul makes it clear that it is his opinion and feelings. He states it plainly. Whether you believe him or not. The controversy should be against the former CEO Peter Brendel. Why are we crucifying those that were victims? There should be no victim blaming here!
Thursday 10th May 2094 European Union Space Agency
Paul was with the rest of the team as they completed their training for the moon at the European Union Space Agency’s training center which was located adjacent to the spaceport in French Guiana. Paul had avoided any media at all so he could focus on the upcoming race. He had set up an away message for his email. He had avoided any social media and avoided the television. He had simply stayed offline. He had read or played video games if he needed entertainment. He avoided the public and stayed on campus so he could stay focused. He didn’t need any more distractions. He was taking the Luna race very seriously. He had been training hard in the simulator but there was only so much it could teach him. He needed to get in the ship and feel how it responded in the Lunar gravity for himself. He had to go through a bunch of safety training though just to get to the moon. He was determined to do well at Luna. He wanted to prove that his podium in Portugal was not a fluke but skill and a get ship. He felt the pressure to perform now more than ever before. Alexander had done his best to give him as much training as close as possible to Luna conditions as he could. There were still probably going to be necessary tweaks here and there after they started troubleshooting on the moon. Paul was grateful that Alexander was coming to the moon. He liked Cavan Mitchell but he didn’t know him very well yet. He had just started.
Paul was grateful when the day’s training was over. It was not just physically exhausting but mentally exhausting. There were so many things that had to be done just so. It was so easy to make a mistake that could be life threatening. It was just as exhausting to work in simulated zero gravity as it was to work in gravity. The focus required was absolute. He felt like he had put in a twelve hour training day instead of 8. He was grateful that they were all going to get a good night’s sleep on terra firma before blasting off for the moon the next morning. Paul once more withdrew to his room. He sought solitude. He didn’t want to gossip or speculate about the pending investigation or talk about it. He just wanted to block it out and focus on what he needed to learn and do to do well on the moon. Paul put on some music and did some yoga to stretch out his tired muscles. He kept his evening light and went to bed early. He was really excited about traveling to the moon. He was looking forward to seeing Earth from space. That was an experience that even if he lost, no one could take away from him. He would have to remember to take a picture for his mother. He wanted to be able to share the experience with her.
The journey to the moon was gratefully drama free. It went exactly as planned. Paul had discussed strategy and ship set up with Alexander and Helga. He was grateful that Alexander didn’t feel the need to talk about what was happening at headquarters. He stuck to what the team needed to do to get the ship prepped for the upcoming race. They had started the conversion at headquarters of course but there were always things you find out after you get there. They had already added additional directional thrusters around the ship to help it steer and maneuver in the moon’s lighter gravity. They had ensured the pulse engines had the right fuel mixture to propel the ship forward in the lack of atmosphere on the moon. The lack of oxygen makes traditional combustion engines obsolete unless you brought your own oxygen of course. They made sure the ship’s hull would provide protection against solar radiation. Paul had a spacesuit in team colors that had additional protection from radiation built into it. The suit was sleek and stylish but made for movement and to hold pressure. The suit had an external oxygen tank and built in carbon dioxide scrubbers. It also had a port that allowed Paul to plug the suit into the onboard oxygen supply. The helmet mimicked his racing helmet with an integrated holographic heads up display. The glass of the helmet could be adjusted to prevent the sun from blinding him.
Paul’s first lap in the ship was a revelation in how much he needed this time to adjust what he needed to do in the ship. Where he had used his airbrake in the past, he was now using his throttle. He could drift through corners by easing up on the throttle to slow down. He could fire thrusters in a reverse thrust but it was not as smooth. It caused a jerky response that cost him more time. The covering on the ship’s hull took a beating from the regolith. They had needed to reapply it and change its structure a bit to make it harder for the regolith to tear up. Paul had to get used to steering by way of the additional thrusters. Once he got the hang of it, the ship was handling well and still maintained its stability. It was faster on the moon without wind holding it back. The team had updated the efficiency of the energy system as best they could. They had to add some additional filtering support to keep the abrasive dust out of the intakes for the engine. Knight had used an old school but effective method to ensure that the intakes remained unclogged. Paul felt as if they were as prepared as they could be. He would go out and give it his best. He got faster every time he went out. He managed to take the turns just a bit better. He managed to find a racing line that seemed to work for him. The question was would it work when they were all on the track together? Only time would tell.
Delta Hyper Sofa on the Moon
Paul was in one of the new spacesuits that had been designed for this race. He had two in case one was damaged. It was in the Valkyrie’s gold tone with grey piping and blocking evoking wings. The sunglass tint on the visor in a metallic gold. Paul was here for his Delta Hyper interview so the visor was transparent so his face could be seen. He made his way out of the airlock to the Delta Hyper “couch” with the Earth in the background. He took his seat as gracefully as he could in the unwieldy spacesuit. It was sleeker than older models but still not as easy to move in as regular clothes.
"Paul, welcome to Mare Austral! With all the talk of the controversy behind the scenes of Valkyrie at the moment, would you say the team is ready for the race to come?"
Paul sighed and internally wished he could just walk off. He had already said all he really wanted to say about the situation with the former CEO. He didn’t smile this time. He kept a serious look as he answered honestly.
“I believe Team Valkyrie is as ready as we can be. I have been training for this race for weeks. Of course there is only so much preparation and training you can do on Earth in gravity. We have been here for a week. I have needed that week to acclimate to the moon. This is my first time on the moon. There is very little gravity and no real atmosphere to speak of which makes the ship behave and react very differently. Alexander Knight and the team have been tweaking and making changes to accommodate Luna since we got here. I am comfortable with my current setup. I am getting decent times in practice. We will just have to run our best race and hope we did enough.”
Physical Description: Amber has long brown hair and warm brown eyes. She is of average height and has a slightly voluptuous build. She is often found in natural fabrics like cottons, silks, and leathers. She is often found in jeans and cotton tops or long full flowy skirts. Amber has scars all over her body that have faded from being caught by shrapnel in an explosion. The scars are fine lines and marks.
Her Wolf Form:
Amber’s wolf form resembles a natural white wolf. Her shifting is magical in nature and is not immediate. She has to meditate and connect with the magical energy of the pack and her totem animal that is tied to her belief’s in mother earth before she can reach the state that will allow her to shift. It is a slow process and can take some time. She doesn’t heal from shifting. She does not gain any speed, strength, or heightened senses that true shifters do. If she is hurt in wolf form, she is hurt when she shifts back.
Personality: She is tougher and more aggressive than she used to be. She still has a soft heart for those who may be hurt or in need, but she is careful who she gives her help to these days. Amber used to be a very warm, open person and kind to all. After everything that she has been through, she has become cynical and distrusting. Amber is very wise for her age and very caring. She has learned to hide her heart and guard it carefully. She has been betrayed so many times. She is desperately lonely. Amber is close to losing all sense of herself. She feels like a hollowed-out shell of the woman she used to be. Amber feels like her life has imploded and it is slowly crushing what little is left of her soul. Amber has come to Dallas in an effort to come home. She is hoping returning to David’s pack will help her regain part of the woman she lost when she left to protect them from the fallout of the Humans Only attack. Amber has suffered through serious trauma and has PTSD which can show up as panic attacks, nightmares, and insomnia.
STRENGTHS/POWERS: Aura Manipulation – She can see auras. Through experience she can use the information in someone’s aura to learn about them. Shifters show up with a spectral shroud over imposed on their face of their animal half. The strength of the aura can tell her how powerful they are. Shifters can hide this from her if they shielding what they are. Animators and vampires tend to have black or darkness in their auras not because they are evil people but because they deal with death magic of some form. Vampires like shifters can shield their energy from her. Humans have auras too. Because Amber can see the auras she can also manipulate the energy she sees in them. This makes her an especially gifted spiritual healer. (Reiki)
Below is a list of colors and what they represent. 1) Red – Associated with the feelings of passion and sexual desires, when this color shows in a person’s aura, it means that they are grounded in their goals for life. A person with red in their aura is both emotionally and psychically grounded or balanced. Material wealth and spending is a fun game, and they hate to deny themselves the simple pleasures in life. Red symbolizes a zest for life. 2) Orange – An orange aura is signifying one’s happiness with their friends, family, and environment. A person with a lot of orange in their aura is quick to make and keep friends. Orange is the color of the Sacral Chakra, which is where one will hold their negative or positive emotions that are influenced by the relationships they have with others. 3) Yellow – A yellow aura signifies the inner happiness and balance that one has within one’s self. Therefore, it is the color of the Solar Plexus chakra. Yellow can also indicate a playful spirit, high self-esteem, a spiritual awakening, high intellect, or a pang of hunger for greatness. 4) Green – It will come as a surprise to many that green is the color of self-love and not pink, even though they both do have the same frequency levels. When green is present in one’s aura, it means two things: either they are in love with someone who balances them out, or they have a kind, loving heart. A loving kindness towards animals, plants, friends, family, and life in general, to be precise. 5) Blue – Blue is the color of communication; thus, it is the color of the throat chakra. A blue aura reveals someone who enjoys meditation, who is in a calm state, and who stands to protect the ones they care about. They are frequently a support system for their friends and family. 6) Indigo – Known to “see” into other people’s energies, the color indigo in an aura indicates someone who is in tune with their higher self. Indigo means one who searches for truths of the unknown and who can sense other people’s energies. It also reveals a power that one uses to see past the deceit that people try to pass as truth. 7) Purple – Purple is the highest level of all the chakra colors. Being the crown chakra color, people who have purple in their aura are intuitive, is the “view the larger picture” type of person, and love to guide others to their highest potential. They are often the artistic type. 8) Pink- As stated above, both pink and green vibrate on the same frequency level. However, a pink aura shows one who is happy and in harmony with those who are around them. Someone who has this aura can often be gentle, be it to others or themselves. 9) Silver- Silver is the color of abundance, which can mean that the person is coming into spiritual or material wealth. 10) Brown- This color should be taken as a warning for some as brown signifies the emotions of greediness and self-absorbedness. 11) Black- While it is not a “bad” aura color when black is present, it means that one has a large amount of built-up anger or grief inside them. It also means that they have not forgiven what has happened to them and is still holding onto that pain. This anger and suffering from the past or recent events can be held towards themselves or to other people. It can also symbolize ill health. Some animators and vampires will have black in their aura not because they are evil. It simply indicates that they are tied to death magic. 12) White- White is the color of energy protection, and when it is present in an aura, it means two things. The first is that the person is more concerned with spiritual matters done on this earthly plane, and the second is that they do not care so much for material possessions or needs. It can also symbolize a healthy individual.
Spirit Medium – This is more of a psychic ability that she inherited from her grandfather. She can sense and channel spirits.
Ritual Ceremonial Magic – She practices the ritual magic taught to her by her grandfather. She is a Cherokee medicine woman or Shaman. Ritual magic takes time and preparation. She will often use a fan made of eagle feathers, herbs, sage, crystals, and the like along with a ritualistic chant, etc.
Ritual Healing – Amber is a gifted spiritual healer as she can see and manipulate the energies in the body. Again it takes some time and there is a trade off in energy. If Amber uses her energy to heal someone, it weakens her because she is giving that energy to another. There is a limit to what she can do. She will pay a physical toll for healing of this nature.
Herbalist – Knowledge passed down and learned. She knows herbs and how to prepare them for use in holistic healing. Can take the form of her totem animal: A white wolf
WEAKNESSES: She is just a human and can be hurt easily. She has a price on her head and is being hunted by a rogue Human Rights Group, Human's Only. They felt that even magic users were not human. She is a known magic user. Her wolf form is just an average wolf. She has no extra boost to her abilities, such as strength, speed, or agility. She does smell better but that is because a wolf's natural ability to smell is better than a human and only while she is in wolf form. She does not heal faster than human normal. Shifting will not heal any damage for her. To take her totem form takes time and meditation, she can not just shift. Suffers from PTSD
FAMILY/TIES: Father: Jacob Runninghorse Deceased Mother: Mary Skywulf Deceased Grandfather: Hunter Skywulf Deceased
GOALS/MOTIVATIONS: She has been chased from one home to the next. She has been forced to leave those she cared about behind. She is slowly dying inside. She has become someone she no longer recognizes. Trauma has left her scarred, bitter, and distrustful. She doesn’t want to live her life that way. She has been on the run from extremist groups for years now. She has stayed away to protect those she cares about. In the process she lost herself. She wants to come home.
HISTORY: Amber was born in Atoka, Oklahoma. Her parents were both Native American Indians although from different tribes. Her father was full blooded Navaho and her mother Cherokee. Her parents were both school teachers. They were pretty average folks until a fateful day took them both from her. A drunk driver hit them head on doing 80mph. She was sent to live with her grandfather. Nobody else wanted the burden of raising a child. She was 8 years old at the time. At first she was scared and unsure of how she would fit in. Her mother had never really talked about her father much. He was always talked of in hushed tones and phrases such as "stuck in the past" were made in reference to him. Her grandfather believed that their culture should be preserved. He believed and lived the old ways. He was also the tribe's Shaman or medicine man. He passed that knowledge onto Amber. He taught her how to harness those natural gifts that she had inherited from him. Many would try to label her a natural witch. Call her that at your peril. She was a Shaman and proud to be one. She was a grown woman when her grandfather introduced her to local werewolf pack, The Golden Plains Pack. The Golden Plains Pack was a group that was made up of fellow Native Americans who had been infected on the reservation. It was a natural fit for her grandfather to advise them as their vargamor. She helped her grandfather as his aide. Amber was also an artist; its how she made her living. She worked in various mediums. Her grandfather often helped the tribal police with crimes of a preternatural nature. One of those things that goes bump in the night was finally big enough to kill her beloved grandfather. She hunted the smoke demon down and bound him back into darkness but it did not soothe the whole his death had left in her life. She made contact with the pack in San Diego and decided that she could not live where memories and ghosts brought such sadness and pain to her life. When he died her grandfather left everything he owned to her. She kept his cabin and lands but she sold off all her art and cashed in his life insurance policy he had. She had a nice amount of money for starting over. So she moved to San Diego and started a new chapter of her life.
Vargamor to the Aesir Labyrinth Clan She was welcomed by the local Ulfric Mina O'Connor. She was surprised to find a woman Ulfric. They did get along well. Amber bought a new home and created a place for herself. She opened an occult shop/coffee shop/tea shop/ artist studio called Wired Angels. Amber jumped immediately into helping the pack. They were numerous new wolves who needed help adjusting to their new lives and dealing with the trauma that made them werewolves. The pack exploded in size and Amber was busier than ever. Amber had helped the twins deal with an abusive past. She had saved the Lupa's baby. She had taught many new wolves control and how to deal with their beast. Amber was busy and happy. Her business and art were doing well. She had friends that she loved. She felt needed and felt she had found her place in the world once more. Then life got complicated.
While securing the Lupanar from magical attack, Amber discovered a plot to kill Mina. A zealot's rogue human rights activist group, Humans Only, had kidnapped a powerful mage's family and had coerced the man into doing their bidding. They had tried to bind Mina's powers so they could kill her and then the rest of the pack. Amber stopped them but it was not without personal sacrifice. She had to be the one to report them to RPIT. The police thought she was involved more than they could prove and investigated Amber and her shop Wired Angels. The investigation brought attention to her and her shop. Unwanted attention as reporters hounded her for interviews and did numerous pieces about her and her shop and not all of them were beneficial. The LT in charge of the local RPIT team did not like or trust Amber now.
A new threat came to town, A psychotic Norwegian Mage who thrived on sexual sadism and stripping wereanimals of pieces of their souls. He literally was stealing pieces of their life force. Amber aided RPIT in their investigation again. This mage had stolen and harmed not just one but two of their own. Amber managed to save the twin who had been hurt by tying a piece of her own soul to theirs till the damage could be repaired. In the final showdown with the mage, he had laid a magical trap in a large warehouse for the pack and the police. Amber was racing to warn police, who would not believe her. The pack was coming in the back of the warehouse having tracked him from where he had attacked one of their own. A RPIT officer stepped on the rune that triggered the trap and there was a huge explosion of pent up magical power. The explosion sent shrapnel and energy in all directions. Amber managed to shield many of the police officers and pack but at great cost to herself. She was in the hospital for weeks. She still had faint scars everywhere from the blast. When the Human's Only group finally went to trial, only Amber could testify against them, the others did not want to reveal that they were lycanthropes. It put her life in jeopardy since they operated like a terrorist group in small cells. It made the group almost impossible to disband and catch them all. She testified against them and many of their ring leaders were put away or executed for their crimes. Amber had been identified in the media and a price put on her head. The group vowed revenge on her and started hunting her. The twins were almost killed while staying at Amber's house while they were healing. The group had shot at her house with rocket launchers. That attack finally forced Amber to agree to go into protective custody for a while. She did not want anyone else getting hurt because of her. She left with the promise that she could come home again when they found them all. She had tried and found out there was a quiet war for power being fought in San Diego now. She had tried to contact Mina and had failed. She took that for a sign that Mina felt she would be a danger to the pack and was not welcome. So she hit the road once more.
She had come to Dallas after being in witness protection for three years. No matter where she went they found her. Anyone she got close too died. She was convinced that there was a high level leak in the Marshall's office. After running and moving every 6 months Amber was tired of running. David had accpeted her into his pack. She had finally felt like she was not alone anymore. She had reopened her gallery/bookstore/coffeeshop, Wired Angels in Dallas. She had thought that David's pack knowing what was hunting her would survive the coming turmoil. Instead because her face had been blasted in the media, Humans First staked out her shop and investigated anyone with ties to her. She once more left to protect those she cared about. She went back into witness protection. The pattern repeated itself once more. She was looking over her shoulder. She was attacked and forced to move from city to city. She had even tried moving back into her grandfather's place on the reservation to be attacked there. It seemed that she was welcome no where. All she had to show for her efforts were more scars and mental anguish. Amber had started seeing a therapist that specialized in preternatural trauma. She had been diagnosed with PTSD. It was no surprise that she had nightmares and panic attacks. She had been stabbed, shot, and once a witch tried to blow her up with a magical based shrapnel bomb.
She had run from city to another. She spent some time in Miami and then Hawaii. Always they would find her. She had tried changing her appearance and name. She had tried hiding her magic and her ties to the lukoi. Anyone she got too close to died. Amber is tired of running. Just like her last time in witness protection, she is convinced that there is a leak in the marshal's office. She is also convinced that because of their structure the authorities will never find all the cells. She is tired of hiding. She wants to come home. She hopes coming home to Dallas will help her heal. She doesn't even recognize herself in the mirror any more. She had been cut off from anything that gave her life meaning. She hopes to at least regain some of what made life worth living. Only time will show if death and violence follow her this time.
(OOC note this character has been played on several other boards in the past which is why her history is so extensive.)
Appearance: Fiona is a dwarf. She is short at 4 foot tall. She has the stocky muscular build of a dwarf with the curves you would find on a woman. She has long red hair that has braids close to her face to keep it out of her way while she is fighting. The remainder of her hair hangs loose down her back in waves. She has a nice long goatee style beard with that is sometimes decorated with braids decorated with golden beads and jewelry. She has dwarven tribal tattoos on her face in a dark brown color. Her eyes are blue. She is quite beautiful by dwarven standards.
Fiona is wearing dwarven armor that is a mixture of metals and leather. An elaborate dwarven chest plate with shoulder pauldrons is fitted to a heavier leather bodice that protects her torso. The lighter leather under armor suit is a crimson red leather dragon scale design along the arms. Snug fitting matching leather pants adorns her legs. A skirt of heavy leather strips reinforced with decorative dwarven steel plates protect her legs. Heavy leather boots in dark brown leather come to her knee with a decorative steel plate down the front.
Fiona is wearing a large leather traveling pack with a bedroll strapped to the bottom of it. She is wearing a heavy wine-colored cloak lined in cream colored fur. The cloak is attached to her armor at the shoulders. When she is not wearing the cloak, it rolled up inside the bedroll. A large medallion in gold with a symbol that looks like a stylized tree on it holds her cloak together around her neck. She is carrying a large dwarven war hammer. The same stylized tree symbol that is on her medallion is on her hammer.
Age:45
Gender: Female
Occupation: Traveling cleric for the dwarven goddess Breanne. Breanne is a dwarven goddess of the harvest. Breanne is a goddess that provides blessings of fertility and a bountiful harvest. Clerics of the goddess Breanne travel dwarven lands spreading her blessings and teachings, collecting their tribute to the goddess of plenty. Clerics protect the tributes given to the temple.
Abilities: Fiona is an acolyte of the Dwarven Goddess Breanne. She can provide her goddess’ blessings to others four times a day. She can call upon her faith in the goddess to repel the undead.
Skills: Fiona is a skilled cleric and warrior. She is proficient in melee combat. Her preferred weapon of choice is her war hammer. She is stronger than she looks. Dwarves are short but heavy with muscle and dense. She can often be found in the middle of a barroom brawl. She is just as good with her fists. Skilled Hand to hand fighter Skilled in knives and swords Skilled in pole weapons Skilled Melee fighter
Fiona often travels great distances in service to her goddess. She can navigate and survive in the wilderness. She knows how to set up a camp, start a fire, and cook her own meals. She knows how to hunt her own food and scavenge what nature provides.
Personality: Fiona likes to have a good time. She has never met a beer or alcohol she doesn’t like. That doesn’t mean she can’t get serious when the time calls for it. She is fairly easy going and laid back. But don’t disrespect her goddess, her beard, or her beer. These are sure ways to start a fight with her. She has her own quirky sense of honor and follows a code of conduct of sorts.
Biography: Fiona is 45 years old. Dwarves often live to be over 350 years old and are considered mature at 50. Fiona is young and in the prime of her life. She was born in a small dwarven village in the Eborian mountains in the small village of Canibri. Her mother was a blacksmith and a well-known weaponsmith. She was considered a master artisan. People traveled to their small village to purchase her goods. Her father was a dwarven warrior that had served the local dwarven lord for a long time. Her father had retired not long ago. Her mother had made her weapons and armor and her father had taught her how to fight. Fiona was out seeing the world and traveling for adventure. She wanted to know what was out in the world before she got too old to travel.
Likes: Beer or alcohol of any kind. A good story. A good tune. A good brawl.
Dislikes: Seeing innocents hurt. An unfair fight. Alcohol abuse: Good alcohol should never be wasted. That means disposed of deliberately such as being poured onto the ground.
Fears: Spiders- They have all those legs and all those creepy eyes. I mean who likes spiders!
Weaknesses: She can’t swim. Dwarves have very dense bones and body tissue. They don’t float. They just sink to the bottom.
Nation Name: The Daxini Conclave Short Name: Daxini
5 major habitable planets: Dax: Seat of government & industry Vaqueeni - A world of vast open plains bounded by rainforest with large oceans. Nkarri - Rich ecology, plant life, and dense forests Azizos - Mountainous word rich in ore and minerals Xi'Abek - A terraformed garden-like world considered sacred to the Daxini. It is forbidden to outsiders with only one large city on the planet that houses a large temple complex with the Great Library of K'Sh'kia.
Flag: The flag is a dark hunter green background with five gold stars in a soft curve from left to right with each star getting larger. The green background signifies the nation’s commitment to protecting their planets’ natural beauty and ecosystem. The gold stars represent the 5 primary planets and clans of the coalition.
Map Location: Planets donated in a green color. They are a smaller nation state that doesn’t have continuous borders. They are in smaller pockets.
Government Type: The Daxini Coalition is governed by a high clan council. There are five major clans represented in the Daxini Coalition. Each clan elects a leader to send to the Clan Council. Clan leaders are elected for 5 year terms. Of the five members of the Clan Council, one member among them is elected to represent them all and lead them as the Daxini Chieftain. The population votes for their clan leader. The clan council members elect the Daxini Chieftain. The Daxini Chieftain serves the same term as the Clan Council Leaders of 5 years. Clan Leaders can be elected for consecutive terms but elections are held every 5 years. Nominations to run for clan leaders come from the population. A nominee puts forth their name in their clan indicating their interest. Nominees must have the backing of at least ten other clan members who are willing to testify as to that member’s character and leadership ability. All qualified candidates record a short message where candidates get to state why they want the position and what they hope to accomplish. Preliminary Elections decide the top 5 candidates per clan who then run in a second Primary Election who decides the clan leader for that clan. The 4 candidates who made it into the primary election become the advisory council for that clan leader. It is not a perfect system but it works for them.
Demographics: Clan Name Animal Type % of Population Avitas Birds 20 Buzini Bears 20 Rapaxini Cats 30 Xidanae Wolves 20 Kronar Digital Entities 10
World Total Population Dax 3.5 billion Vaqueeni 2 billion Nkarri 1 billion Azizos 2.5 billion Xi’Abek 4 million
About 20% of their population have developed telepathy and telekinesis.
The Avitas Clan are anthropomorphic avians. They are various types of human bird hybrids. They are the clan most likely to be voted in to hold the position of Prime Minister. A pivotal figure in their history, K’Sh’Kia, was from the Avitas clan. Their clan is renowned for producing scientists, scholars, and fighter pilots.
The Buzini Clan are anthropomorphic bears. They are known for their strength and endurance. They are known to produce strong and fierce warriors and great philosophers. They mate for life and are fiercely loyal and protective of their families.
The Rapaxini Clan are anthropomorphic cats. They are a clan known for producing fierce warriors, and artists.. They are known to be fast and agile. They are strong and patient hunters. They are also known for loving a good ambush and prize those skills. Beware being friends with them, they are known to ambush their friends to pull off a good prank.
The Xidanae clan are anthropomorphic wolves. They prefer to live and work in groups. They are fiercely attached to their pack. They often form telepathic bonds to one another. For that reason they are often left in their groups in the military. They are known for close clan ties and prefer to live in communal structures. They are known to be cunning strategists. They produce some of the top military strategists and educators.
The Kronar Clan AI’s are known as digital entities (DEs for short) and have rights just like other citizens. Once there was enough digital entities and their status had been recognized by society as citizens, they founded their own clan. They had different needs to other clans since they were not biologically born like their organic counterparts. Having their own representation in government was important to them. They work with all the clans. Just like any organic being they develop social groups and friends among the other clan groups. They work well with all of them. There are AI’s serving by choice on starships in the military. Most AI’s serving in the military are assigned to larger ships where they are more likely to survive combat. AI cores are housed in ejectable almost indestructible pods in case of a ship destruction. They can eject their pod and be picked up after the battle. AI core pods were developed to allow them to experience and explore life to the fullest. Their core pods could be plugged into vehicles, factories, space stations, ships, and droid bodies.
Military: Daxini has a fairly large standing military with almost 20 percent of their population in the military. As many of the more warrior type clans prefer to go into military service. They are all highly skilled and trained. The warrior clans grow up learning discipline, martial arts, and physical conditioning. They are a small nation but their military is nothing to scoff at. The quality of their military is exemplary as the members push themselves and each other to excel. They are renowned for their spycraft, fighter pilots, and shock troops.
The Daxini Military has four branches: Wings: This branch are the ones who fly their battleships and starfighters. Claws: This branch are the combat troops that are trained for both space and ground combat. Eyes: This branch works with the stealth groups. They are the spies, infiltration operatives, and intelligence analysts. Talons: This branch provides all the logistic support, such as equipment maintenance, supply, provisions, and communications.
The branches work together to make it all work. Flight Chiefs are the ones who lead the battle stations and battleships. They are in charge of battlegroup movement tactics and battles. War Chiefs are the ones who lead the troops into battle. They decide on the attack and defense plans utilizing troops. Eagle Eyes are the spymasters. They lead the spy core and all stealth and spy operations. They provide intelligence for the other groups to work off of. Talon Chiefs are the ones who decide how they are going to provide all the supplies, food, equipment, and communications for and between the groups that makes it all work. The work they do provides the foundation for all the others do. The work they do is not glamorous but it is essential to any military.
Miliary Uniforms: Daxini Military uniforms come in shades of gray. The work uniforms is comfortable, durable, and easy to wash. The dress uniform has a form fitting leather jacket with snug stretchable slacks tucked into leather boots. Rank insignia is in gold. The military branch insignia is embroidered in gold along with the a star that symbolizes the Daxini Military.
Dress Uniforms Work Uniforms
Propulsion Technology: Their spaceships use a wormhole generator jump gate drive to open holes in space to other quadrants of the galaxy. They can get anywhere pretty quickly. The wormhole generators are massive energy drains and take time to recharge. The jump gate technology allows their ships to travel long distances in space making space travel possible for them. Their ships use a combination of gravitic engines and ion propulsion drives. Gravitic drives give their ships exceptional maneuverability. Ion drives are used where gravity drives don’t work as well, which is inside gravity wells. Inertial dampeners based on gravity drive technology allows their ships to use ludicrous speed without discomfort or injury. Their ships use miniaturized fusion reactors for their power needs. They have more than one reactor in case of failure and for redundancy. The gas for the Ion drives are mined from gas giants using cloud scoop technology.
Defensive Technology:
Their ships have a combination of a tough alloy heavy armor that is highly durable and good at dispersing heat and absorbing energy. There is a top layer of ablative armor that is composed of a metallurgic nanite technology. The nanites work to repair damage to the armor and maintain hull integrity. Their ships use an energy shield produced by gravity technology that repels space debris to protect the ship as it travels through deep space from small things like space dust and small meteors. The shield's strength can be increased to help prevent energy and missiles from landing directly on the hull. The shields are used during battle to prevent atmosphere loss in the ship bays. Ships can enter and exit without the docking bays having to be empty of atmosphere. Their ships also have smaller defensive lasers with targeting systems to help shoot down missiles approaching the ship. The lasers themselves are not very strong but they are strong enough to set off the payload of missiles before they hit the ship. They provide a layer of active protection in space battles which can become a missile slug fest.
Offensive Technology: Their spaceships carry a variety of missiles with antimatter payloads, EMP burst with radiation to block sensors, smaller explosive missiles used for surgical tactics, and a programmable nanite missile that can deliver a payload of nanites to the ship. What the nanites do varies by programming and be controlled by their digital entities. There is a combination of heavy plasma cannons and laser cannons in the energy department. Their is a sonic cannon developed by the Kronar. Their strongest weapons are rail guns that fire heavy slugs at high rates of speed. The kinetic weapons can be devastating and are only possible due to their advanced gravitic technology.
Computer Systems: Sophisticated quantum computer systems with crystalline memory drives ensure smooth function of ship systems and navigations. As they developed their computer technology, their systems created the conditions for artificial intelligence computer systems. As their technology improved it allowed those more basic AI systems to develop into true sentience. The AI’s that make that leap to self awareness are called digital entities. There are digital entities serving by choice on starships, battle stations, and bases in the military. Most digital entities are assigned to larger ships where they are more likely to survive combat. Digital entity cores are housed in ejectable almost indestructible pods in case of a ship destruction. They can eject their pod and be picked up after the battle. The pods house enough energy and memory to keep the AI safe and alive almost indefinitely if their pod is undamaged. They are outfitted with small solar panels to keep the energy systems charged. The digital entity cores are designed to plug into a vast array of vehicles, factories, mechs, and droid bodies. This allows digital entities to explore their own interests as they develop and grow just like people.
Communications: Their home planetary systems are seeded with small space satellites that use miniature wormhole technology and quantum particle pairing to connect them to each other so that they can communicate in real time. The satellites house not only communication technology but sensors that monitor for threats to their worlds. Their spaceships use paired quantum entanglements to connect to military satellites for communication with each other and their home systems. They have a powerful cellular based technology for ship to ship communications. They had an adaptive translation software that helped their diverse people overcome language issues and communicate with one another. The translation device was small and implanted beneath the skin. Their Digital Entities update their translation languages every time they run into a new one. It usually took a little time but with enough recordings, they managed to figure out the grammar, lexicon, and language to add to the database.
Daxini Spaceships
Civilian Spaceships
Battle stations: Their starfighters deployed off of mobile battle stations, their jumpgate technology allowing them to deploy into combat zones. Battle stations were meant to be a mobile base for the military. The battle stations had heavy engines to move them after a jump but they were built for toughness not speed. Battle stations were heavily armored mobile bases. They had heavy armor beneath an ablative armor outer armor shell that had self repairing nanite technology. They had large heavy plasma cannons and multiple missile launchers. They had smaller laser missile defense systems. Each battle station has the capacity to hold 1000 starfighters and 250 shock troop drop ships. They had the capacity to launch 100 fighters and 50 drop ships at a time. The landing bays could recover them quickly and get them back in the fight. The battle station has medical facilities and onboard ship repair facilities to get damaged fighters back into action.
Starfighters: Their starfighters are crescent shaped and mimic the wings of a bird in flight with plasma cannons on the ends of the wings. The starfighters are fast and very agile with gravity drives. They have ablative armor and shields. Their wings fold up for racking and storage while not in use. The cockpit drops down from below allowing the pilot in and then retracts up into the ship. The fighters are stored in racks that feed directly to the launch tubes with grated gantries allowing pilots access to their ships.
Troop Drop Ships: Troop drop ships are designed for high speed deployment from space to ground. Troopers could launch and be on the surface of a planet within 2 minutes. Their ships have heavy heat shielding to protect them atmospheric entry and antigravity repulsion fields to help stop the dropship before it impacted with the ground. The interior inertial dampening fields protected the troops from the g-forces and kinetic energy their dive through the atmosphere generated. Drop ships are also designed to force boarding onto ships and space stations. They had a circular laser array for cutting a hole in the side of a ship or space station. The ship had a deployable flexible tunnel that deployed around the laser array creating a portable airlock and entry point for troops on board. Troop ships had plasma cannons on the top and bottom on gimbals that gave them a larger range of motion and target fields for offense and defense. Drop ships carried a 10 man squad, a pilot and copilot. Each drop ship carried 1 armored troop vehicle and had room for 5 heavy mechanized combat suits. The armored troop vehicles had small plasma cannons and laser cannons on them. They were armored and carried 5 troopers. The mechanized suits were all heavy armor with a variety of setups depending on the mission and terrain.
Stealth Ships: Stealth ships were used by their intelligence gathering department in the military. They came in a variety of sizes for different size teams. The idea behind them was hiding in plain sight. They didn't always want to be sneaking around with the cloaking shield active. They often used a plausible story for the ship to be in the area. Their ships were disguised as couriers, private yachts, and freighters of various sizes. The crew sizes varied from 5 to 50.
All stealth ships had hidden plasma cannons, rail cannons, and special shielding. The size of the ship changed the number of size of the cannons. The shielding worked the same as conventional shielding but managed to mask the ships heat, light, radiation, and life signatures. The cloak shielding was not perfect and merely bent light around the ship and reduced their signature on most sensors. It was usually enough that active scanning registered the stealth ship more as a sensor ghost or a blip usually writing it off as just one of those glitches that happen occasionally with technology. They all had access to small nanite missiles. All stealth ships had a digital entity as a member of the team to help run ship's systems and deal with any computer systems they came across. They could also control any nanites they team was using. Nanites were an extremely useful tool in the hands of a creative DE. Stealth Ships were considered a secret by the Daxini and no one talked about them to outsiders without good cause. They were a rumor in the broader galaxy.
Battleships: Battleships came in a variety of sizes, dreadnoughts were the largest, followed by destroyers, cruisers, scouts, and couriers. Battleships were mobile heavy armored offensive platforms with cannons and missile launchers. Their purpose was to defend the less mobile battle stations and take the fight to the enemy. They had the heaviest ablative armor with heavier solid armor behind that. Dreadnoughts had a crew complement of 200, destroyers 150, and cruisers 100. Scout ships were small and carried stealth technology and had some of the best sensors in the fleet. They were typically small ships with crews of 10. Couriers were all about speed and carried minimal weapons.
Troop Weapons: Handheld plasma rifles, laser rifles, and rail pistols were common. Often warriors carried their personal clan weapons into battle with them. These were often a blade of some kind but that was not always the case. Clan weapons came in a vast array of styles and materials. Troops had mechanized combat suits to help protect them. These suits also doubled as space suits and carried an oxygen supply for 12 hours. They had heads up displays and communications built into the helmet. The combat suits enhanced trooper strength, speed, and endurance. The onboard AI’s monitored their vital signs and could deploy some built in first aid in case of injury.
There was additional tools available to those who were serving on Stealth Ships. Holographic disguises, voice altering microphones, nanite payload capsules, miniature drones, grenades of various types, and a special pistol that carried changeable cartridges that shot fletchette dart type rounds that could deliver an electric shot, poison, knock out gas, or small tungsten carbide barbs. The pistol was based on rail gun technology and utilized their gravitic technology to hurt the darts and barbs at super sonic speeds. The velocity of the shots were set by a slider mechanism by the thumb. They could set it for a soft shot that would feel like getting hit by an airball gun or punch through concrete. There was a whole armory of specialized gear to help their people on their mission.
Armored Troop Vehicles: Armored troop vehicles looked like small tanks. They rode on an antigravity cushion and floated in the air. The turret could turn 360 degrees. The large cannon on the turret was the plasma cannon and the small turret was the rail gun. They were heavily armored. The vehicles had a sensor suite that checked everything from atmospheric conditions to radiation levels. The troop vehicle housed a communication node and acted as a satellite for team communications during a mission.
History: The Daxini Conclave were a diverse group of people who spanned across several worlds. They were composed of 5 main clans. The clan structure was inherent in their culture and history. Their early years were full of violence and wars. Their people were divided into clans by race. They didn't try to understand each other or make alliances with each other. They battled each other for supremacy and domination seeking to claim power for the glory of their own family and clan. Racism was rampant and led to disparities and further war. They were well on their way to destroying themselves and their worlds. That was when the Yrrani came.
They suddenly found themselves trying to defend their world from an outside invader but they didn't trust the other clans enough to work with them. They were easy pickings for the Yrrani. They steam rolled right over them all. It didn’t matter what clan you were from. They picked the Daxini off one clan at a time. The Yrrani enslaved the Daxini. Many of their people were tasked with serving Yrrani masters who treated them as little better than pets. They were forced to fight each other for their Yrrani master’s entertainment. Untold number of Daxini died in the fighting pits. The Daxini never knew who the Yrrani would take with them when they raided their worlds for new slaves. Their people suffered as those left behind were enslaved in other ways. They were forced to mine resources from their own planets, grow food and turn it over to the Yrrani while their people starved, and work in factories for the Yrrani. The conditions their people were forced to endure were downright barbaric. The processes used were destroying their natural habitats. Many of the native species had been exterminated to extinction as their ecosystems and habitats were destroyed. Slave labor was cheap. There were very few Daxini who still lived on their homeworlds.
The Yrrani eventually moved on to exploit a new race. They still kept tabs and stopped in occasionally to raid for fighters for the fighting pits. The Yrrani had moved the Daxini all over the galaxy. Some of the Daxini were freed and sent home. Others remained enslaved to Yrrani who did not want to give up their pets. Others were simply left where they had been in a battle to survive where the Yrrani had left them. The Daxini who still lived on their homeworlds were left reeling. They had been exploited heavily by the Yrrani. As a people all they had known for centuries was oppression, fear, and pain under the Yrrani boot. No one even remembered their culture or history anymore. They looked around and found themselves in hellscape with no sense of how they had gotten there or what to do about it. Memories of their past were night time fairy tales whispered in the dark. The lived in fear of the Yrrani's next visit.
The Daxini left were unsure of where to even start. The Yrrani had left them on their own. They would survive on their own or not. There was no help for them from the Yrrani. Their homeworlds were in shambles, their ecosystems mostly destroyed. They had returned home to planets on the verge of ecological collapse. They were struggling to feed the Daxini were remained when others began to trickle in one ship at a time. The Daxini had been left with old shuttlecraft and a few older mining ships the Yrrani didn't need or want. The technology they did have was broken or stolen from the Yrrani. Most of it didn't work properly. Only a hand full of people understood how the technology worked. There were very few children left among the Daxini. Their people were in survival mode. They didn't have the resources to search the galaxy for groups of their people who might have been left behind. Everyone who made it home was welcomed warmly. Their people's future looked bleak.
Then as their broken society tried to survive and find a path forward, a leader emerged from the darkness to lead them. Her voice was a spark of hope and light in the darkness they found themselves in. Her name was K’Sh’kia. She spread a message of hope. She offered them something new to believe in. The idea that they were stronger because of their differences. They could repair the damage to their worlds but they would have to work together. K'Sh'kia had been one of the more fortunate Daxini. Her master had been a low level Yrrani who had trained her to help him with his duties. She didn't waste the opportunity to learn all she could about the technology the Yrrani used. K'Sh'kia began to share that knowledge with her people. She began to teach them what they needed to know to survive. K'Sh'kia understood the power of knowledge. She understood that it was better to know how to make a thing than to own the thing. You could always make more. If you understood how to make it, you could fix it. She also understood that to overcome the challenges facing them, they would have to work together. It would take everyone if they were to survive.
The Daxini had never supported one another or other clans. In the beginning, K’Sh’kia’s ideas were seen as radical. Many laughed and claimed they would never work. She just smiled and encouraged them to remember the lessons that the Yrrani had taught their people. Pride had almost killed them all. Her ideas attracted other important leaders. Their work started small but with every small success attracted more followers. Eventually even the children were recruited to help with the farms.
First they worked to feed and house as many as they could. They planted crops and recruited those who knew how to do those things to teach those willing to learn. They sent out the few mining ships they had to find the ore so they could build. She sent out the people to find what they needed to build hydroponic farms. The hydroponic farms could grow food year round. Algae could be turned into biofuel. Many of their people were carnivores through biology. They managed to make a nutritious meat substitute. It was a poor substitute for the real thing in the beginning. It got better over time, but it did keep people alive.
The Daxini went through a period of rapid regrowth, a renaissance period as new ideas and technology quickly emerged. K'Sh'kia was not the only leader to rise to prominence during this time of rebirth for the Daxini. Others shared their knowledge and taught the skills their people would need to survive. Others stepped forward as spiritual leaders. Offering a way of thinking a new way of life. They focused on living in harmony with nature and the planet. They built space stations and space ships using knowledge and technology they had learned while slaving away for the Yrrani. They began to rebuild their culture and identity as a people but this time they focused on what they wanted their people to stand for. Centuries passed and the Yrrani seemed to forget about the Daxini homeworlds. The Yrrani had not visited their worlds in centuries.
Over time their people embraced their differences and celebrated them. They came to understand that everyone did something to help society as a whole. It became a point of pride to strive to make their world safer and better for everyone. Every citizen served a four year term in civic service where they explored career paths they were interested in. That didn’t always mean military service. Civic service included working for the community in government administration, artists helped make their cities and living spaces brighter and more meaningful, scientists continued to strive for improvements in technology. Some of their people tried to learn about their past. Others sought to capture the experiences of the Daxini at the hands of the Yrrani so their people would never forget. Spiritual leaders and philosophers taught their ideology to others. Daxini who were naturally gifted in fighting who had learned skills in the fighting pits taught those who wanted to learn to fight. Schools popped up to teach skills to others and train them.
The planet Xi’Abek was the world most devastated by ecological damage from war. The world had required extensive terraforming to save it. It was decided that Xi’Abek would be protected as a reminder of what they had almost become. In a strange way, the Yrrani had saved their people from themselves. It was now a vast rich garden like world. A true paradise and it only had one city on the surface. There was a temple built on the newly terraformed planet that was open to all citizens. The temple carried the tapestry of Xi'Abek a philosopher whose writings led to the study of Xi and described a path of ascension to a higher plane of being. The Daxini believed that the tapestry told the story of their people. The planet was named after this important historical figure. This new way of thinking was embraced by a people in search of a new identity and something to hold their society together. [Please see additional information for more detailed information on Xi, Xi'Abek, the temple, or the library.]
A large city was built up around it. A great library was built there named for K’Sh’Kia to honor the path she had pushed her people to follow. The library housed all the knowledge they had of their history and technology. Within its walls a citizen could find any answers they were seeking about their people or the past and how they got to where they were. The thought was that they should never forget how close they came to annihilation. They were encouraged to make the pilgrimage to Xi’Abek once they came of age. Xi’Abek was considered a sacred world and off limits to outsiders. Many citizens came to study on Xi’Abek. They encouraged their people to figure out what they wanted to do but to use their gifts and talents to improve them all. The individual was celebrated as long as they contributed to the whole. It became part of their culture and to serve was considered a high compliment and honor to the Daxini.
They once again had an identity as a people. They were determined never to lose their way again. While they knew they were not in a place to take on the Yrrani directly, they were no longer a weak civilization ripe for the taking. They began to build their military and patrol their systems against invaders on their own. They pushed criminal syndicates and pirates out of their space. They had withdrawn from the broader universe to focus on rebuilding their people and their worlds. Several hundred years had passed since the Yrrani had last raided their worlds for slaves. It seemed the broader galaxy had forgotten the small group of planets on the edge of galactic society.
Their population numbers had stabilized. Their planets were now a harmonious balance between nature and the needs of a large population. Their technology allowed everyone to enjoy a good quality of life. Their culture honored service, art, hard work, and dedication. People were encouraged to study and learn what they were passionate about. They were an educated race with a deep and rich culture. Their culture may not make sense to outsiders but it was important to them. They took the resources they needed for their technology from asteroid mining. They built space stations to host their manufacturing processes to prevent damage to their planet. Their people didn’t have a religion but they did honor a way of life. They lived by the idea that “There is a path for everyone. Those paths converge and we walk together. And that is our strength.” Daxini knew that their differences all contributed to the success and strength of their whole society.
Once the Daxini could protect themselves, they turned their attention to finding the Lost, those Daxini who had never made it home. They investigated every rumor they heard of regarding their people. When possible, they mounted rescue missions for them. If they preferred where they were, that was fine. However, all were at least invited home and offered transportation. Their military developed stealth technology. They had specialized teams that were trained in espionage and extraction. They developed technology to help them in their mission to ensure that no Daxini gets left behind.
Then one day a freighter captain with a ship full of refugees was fleeing from the fighting in the core systems. They brought word the Yrrani had fallen. The last emperor had been killed. The galaxy was at war with the remnants of the Yrrani and squabbling over the spoils from their table. The decision was made to strengthen the borders. The Daxini protected their own, only venturing out to prevent others from capturing Yrrani technology that would turn their eyes towards their small nation. They used diplomacy and mutual assistance and non aggression treaties with trade to maintain their neutrality as best they could. There was peace for a short time and now the reclamation wars seem to be heating up again. The Daxini Conclave hoped they were ready for what was coming.
Name: Paul Mulder Alias: “Legacy” Team: Valkyrie Gender: Male Age: 20
Appearance: Height: 6’ Weight: 185 pounds Hair: Blonde Eyes: Blue Languages: English, Dutch, French, and German
Paul is handsome with blonde hair and blue eyes. He has a fit toned physique with long lean muscles and a 6 pack. He is classically handsome. He is just as comfortable in jeans as he is in a designer suit.
Personality: Paul is an easy going charming fellow. He can fit in anywhere and becomes the life of the party. He oozed charm and charisma. He has the ability to blend in and be a social chameleon. He is just as comfortable sipping champagne in a designer suit and talking about politics as he is in a dance club, or at the gym. He is just as comfortable drinking a beer in a pub with friends and hanging out as one of the guys and always up for a pick me up game of soccer or pool. Paul is competitive and has drive and energy. This part of his personality typically shows itself on the racetrack and in practice.
Paul Mulder was only 2 years old when his father, famous pioneering Anti-gravity racer Audrick Mulder died in a fiery crash during the second AGA Racing Season Finale. His father was a happy and laid man who oozed charm and charisma. Everyone wanted to hang out with him. Men wanted to be him and women wanted to date him. His father had started his career in racing as a dirt track racer who qualified for Ferrari's Youth Academy. He spent his teen years racing on the junior circuit and building his reputation and presence. His father was chosen over other racers because he was so marketable and likable and had the skills and reflexes to win on the track. His father had been the whole package. His mother Alicia said he had met her at a dance club. He had been out celebrating a win. According to his mother, his father had charmed her out of a dance and kissed her goodnight declaring that he was going to marry her someday. They celebrated him finishing in the top 5 at Le Mans that year with a wedding.
His mother had been pregnant with him when his father began racing anti gravity racers. His father had been in the top 5 racers and in the competition to win it all when he lost control of his ship in a race. His ship hit the wall head on at over 400kph and exploded in a fiery crash. He grew up with the ghost of his father haunting his life. His mother never remarried or even dated. It was like her life stopped that fateful day. His mother poured all her energy and time into him. He never wanted for anything and grew up in a protected world attending private schools. His mother loved art and was a photographer. She didn’t have to work but photography was her passion. He traveled with her during the summer while she took assignments all over the world. He was well educated and spoke 4 languages. His mother's passion project was to create the Mulder Foundation. It was a charitable organization to honor his father's memory. They had two missions to provide low income children and people with the equipment and training so that they can become professional athletes and they provide art supplies and teachers to children's arts programs across Europe.
He loved his mother but she never understood his need to follow in his father’s footsteps. He grew up idolizing a father he never really got to know. He got to know his father through his mother’s stories, home videos, pictures, old news reels and interviews for the media, and stories from his friends. His mother mentioned that he had been friends with a racer named Alexander Knight. She refused to tell him much about the man. He learned more of the story as he got older and could find the information for himself. He could tell his mother still had resentment and anger towards Alexander. He didn’t know what her issue was with the man. Maybe she resented that he lived that day while his father had died.
He was 13 when he found his father’s journal. He read it and felt like he was getting to know his father all over again. He felt connected to his father. He began racing go-karts. His mother was completely against him trying any racing sport. He could understand her fear but how did he help her understand his need to do it? He felt that his father would understand his need to prove that he could handle the speed and endurance of racing. He loved the thrill and adrenaline that came from focusing his attention on getting the most he could out of any vehicle he drove. He felt as if his father was in the vehicle next to him as he poured on the speed. Those feelings and focus brought him comfort and helped him feel even closer to his father.
He and his mother began to argue about his choice. He insisted his future was in AG Racing. When he was old enough, he began to apply for youth training academies around Germany and Belgium. He was 16 when his father’s name got him an entrance trial. His mother was against his choice but he snuck off to the test anyway. He had all the same natural charm and skill his father had. He didn’t have any augmentations yet but he was still able to perform at the top level on raw talent. Team Valkyrie AGR Sport took a chance that he would become a top level competitor like his father. His mother almost blocked his way and they had a massive fight about it. Her stipulation was he had to finish high school first. His mother gave him his father's journals on his 16th birthday. He never revealed to her that he had already read them.
He was 18 and free to follow his own path now. He was back at Valkyrie in the youth academy. He had spent the last 2 years honing his talent in the Junior league. He had received his first set of augments which was a neural link to improve his reflexes and response times on the track. The neural link allowed him to connect with the vehicle and make minute changes at lightning speed. His neural link also supported and augmented his lungs and heart which allowed him to increase his heart rate and blood flow and lung capacity which helped regulate his blood pressure and breathing during a race. Now was his chance to shine. They had tapped him for the Rookie driver for this year’s season.
Racing DNA
Overview: Paul never raced his competitors. For him it was about him, the vehicle, and chasing that feeling of connection to his father. The faster he went the more dialed in and focused he got. For him it was about seeking that perfect line when everything was instinctual and just felt right and the rest of the world faded away. It was like a light switch flicking and it was effortless when it was all working as planned. Paul was extraordinary when everything was clicking and going his way. He could be a bit of a wild card because he was either on his game or off. When he was off, he over compensated and tended to get into his own way.
Skills: Paul was a natural raw talent gifted with great hand and eye coordination and reflexes. He had the ability to dial in and hyperfocus. He had a neural link that allowed him to connect with the vehicle and make minute changes at lightning speed. His neural link also supported and augmented his lungs and heart which allowed him to increase his heart rate and blood flow and lung capacity which helped regulate his blood pressure and breathing during a race. His augmentations allowed his body to handle the physical requirements for racing at this level and the g forces and strain his body would endure.
Special Trait: Paul’s special trait is that he is handsome and naturally gifted with charm and charisma like his father. He handles the media with charm and a youthful enthusiasm that fans and media alike adore. He has the natural raw talent, skill, and potential to go with it making him a sponsor’s dream driver.
Controversy : Paul is always being compared to the racing legend of his father. There was always speculation happening if he would live up to the legacy of his father. Comparisons between them were constant. When he didn’t perform well, the criticism could be brutal. Many speculate if he had not earned his spot was given his spot in honor of his father. Some media had even theorized that Valkyrie was banking on the nostalgia of die hard AG Race Fans to bring in sponsors and sell tickets. That he was there for his name not his skills. Paul was under tremendous pressure to measure up.
Likes: Women, having a good time, dancing, wine, cats, and running. Dislikes: Beer, lying, fake and superficial people, and he hates marshmallows. He is scared of dogs but doesn’t hate them. Other Information: He both loves and hates being compared to his father. He loves the idea that he is making his father proud. He hates being compared to his father in a negative way. He would hope he is becoming the man his father wanted him to be. He resents when people act like he has not put in the time and sweat to earn his spot.
What has Paul been up to so far:
Episode 1
Paul's ship wouldn't start during his first qualifying race leaving in last position. He managed to move up the pack to 13 place but he didn't earn any points. Paul's team has a new team principal, Alexander Knight. He was not sure about the change at first. He knew what to expect under the old team principal Dominic Rossi. Paul hadn't like Rossi very much but if he wanted to be a professional in this very competitive sport, you had to put up with all kinds of personalities. Paul had an easy going relationship with his teammate Dorian. Paul's mother came clean about what she knew about Alexander Knight when he went home to visit here after the Auckland race. He know knew for sure he could trust Alexander Knight. His mother was supporting his decision to race. He understood her fears better now after learning the suspicions that his father's accident wasn't an accident. He may never know the truth but he would certainly be careful.
Episode 2
Paul had relaxed and supported the changes that Knight was making to their training regime. Paul had to admit that the strategy Knight had discussed with Dorian and Knight had worked. They did better at Cape Town that expected. Paul was grateful for his mother and felt closer to her than ever. He had decided he wanted to do something to show her how much he cared about her. He decided to plan a fundraiser for his father's foundation as a surprise for her. He has started approaching his fellow pilots to contribute to raise awareness and money for the foundation. So far Paul had only approached Beatrix Ward, but it was successful she agreed to be a part of it. They had a side bet going whoever lost had to make a social media wearing the other person's team shirt admitting they lost the bet.
Episode 3
Paul was now training for Tokyo. He was focusing his efforts on energy system deployments and utilizing Valkyrie's superior ship handling to take advantage of chicanes and cornering. Paul knew that Valkyrie should do well in Tokyo.
Paul did alright in Tokyo but not as good as he had hoped. He learned that he needed to spend more time training on ELS systems. He was well paid for the work he did with Enigma Lux but it was not as enjoyable as he had hoped it would be. He had been quite social in Tokyo with three parties and the Enigma Lux party at the fashion show. Paul won his bet with Beatrix Ward and she held up her end of the deal. So he made a post in solidarity wearing the shirt she had sent him. He was feeling a little isolated being such a busy athlete at his age. It was hard to find a group of people who understood the lifestyles and pressures of an AG Pilot. He was hoping to make friends with some of the other pilots. He knew they were competitors but that didn't mean they couldn't be friendly competitors. He was still working on planning the charity gala for his mother's foundation. He met with Hyeon-Ae while he was in Japan. She agreed to be a part of the event.
Episode 4
The Italian GP was a fun race for Paul. He loved the beautiful scenery. There had been another crash this time between Astrid and Han. Astrid was penalized for poor sportsmanship. Paul spent his spare time trying to ingratiate himself with his fellow rookies. Paul was beginning to reap the benefits from the sponsorship money he had earned from the Enigma Lux fashion house. He put most of the profits into savings and invested some.
Name: Alexander Knight Alias: “The Bullet” Team: Valkyrie Gender: Male Age: 48
Appearance: Height: 5’ 10” Weight: 175 pounds Hair: Blonde Eyes: Green Scars: Cybernetic arms - a ring of scar tissue where they connect on his biceps will peak out of the t-shirt sleeve on each arm. Languages: English, Estonian, German, and Russian
Personality: Alexander comes across as a surly grumpy no nonsense man. He has been through a lot of trauma and doesn’t give a shit what others think. He doesn’t take shit from anybody. He has a very strong sense of ethics and what’s right and wrong. He curses like a sailor and will be the first one to tell you, “If you don’t like how I do things. Then don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!” He is a fair man and will give you a chance to state why you think you are right. He will then proceed to tell you why you will do it the way he thinks is best. You can learn alot from him if you can put up with him. His methods might seem harsh and his attitude stark and uncompromising but he is that way because he cares. Alexander likes to win and he wants everyone to come home at the end of the day. Safety is important to him. Alexander pushes everyone around him to rise to the occasion… to strive to be better. Alexander never wanted to accept responsibility for the lives of others again. His traumatic past haunts him and it can be seen in his eyes.
Backstory: Family: Father: Vincent Knight Age: 68 Mother: Elena Novak Age: 67 Ex-Wife: Candace Martin Age: 45 Daughter: Arianna Knight Age 24
Alexander has dual citizenship. His father was from the Federated States, formerly the country of the United States, and the city of Brooklyn, New York. His mother was from the European Union, formerly the country of Estonia and the city of Tartu. His parents met when his father was going to the university in Tartu studying engineering. They got married when his mother became pregnant with him at 19 years old. He spent the first 7 years of his childhood growing up in Tartu surrounded by his mother’s family. His parents got divorced by the time he was eight. He had to admit that his parents got along better after they divorced. They didn’t fight nearly as much. They agreed on more things and his life was more peaceful.
The only hard part was being away from one parent so much of the year. He spent more time with his mother than his father. He lived with his mother during the school year and spent his summers in the US with his father. He loved his mother but she simply didn’t understand him. She wanted him to be a man of culture and art. He couldn't care less about modern art which was her passion. She was always taking him to museums and art shows. She wanted him to dress up and wear a coat and tie. He just wanted to get outside and play in the dirt. He cherished the few months every year when he got to spend time with his father. His father made sure that his time with him was quality time and that he never felt like he took second place to his job or hobby. His father was an engineer that designed engines. His father worked for an aeronautics corporation. They often spent their summer outdoors enjoying hiking, camping, and fishing. They also spent their summers on a project such as restoring classic cars or building hot rods. His father helped him build a soap box racer one year. The next year they upgraded to go-kart racing. In his early teen years, he tried his hand at motocross racing as well. He got into dirt track racing and a youth driver's academy for formula one where he competed on the junior circuit for two years before he graduated high school. He had sponsors on the junior circuit but only a few. He was good and he did well but he didn't receive any offers from any teams. He was outshadowed by a few other drivers and the youth academy was full of talented drivers. He and his father both had the speed bug. If they could go faster, they wanted to.
Because of his unique childhood experience he grew up learning Estonian, Russian, German, and English. When he turned 18 he was faced with some unique challenges. Humanity was trying to reverse the damage they had done to the planet and were actually making progress. There was still a lot of upheaval as world governments sought to work together. Terrorist activity was commonplace. Terrorists used violence to try and force their ideals and mold things to their ideology. Sometimes it was about power and sometimes it was about money. To combat widespread terrorism, the governments and countries involved with NATO recruited heavily from their populations to curb the violence. He felt a duty to help protect others from the chaos that was happening. He went off to fight terrorists at 18. He liked the idea that he was protecting innocents from danger.
He was 19 when he met Candace. His team had been sent in to rescue hostages at UCLA. Terrorists had taken the women hostage at a sorority house just off campus. Candace was one of the girls rescued by his team that night. Alexander began dating Candace. After a whirlwind romance and a wild night in Vegas, he had a wife. He was 22 years old when Candace gave birth to their daughter Arianna. Life was good for Alexander. He had a purpose in life, a woman he loved, and a beautiful daughter. Arianna was 2 years old and his term of service was almost up when his life changed forever.
Alexander and his team were sent to stop terrorists in Florida. NATO had received intel that terrorists were planning to hit a large outdoor music festival in Miami. Homegrown terrorists were unhappy that the government had changed the tax structure and was cracking down on mega corporations to ensure they were paying their fair share. The increased tax revenues were paying for environmentally friendly infrastructure and social service programs. The group was made up of die hard extremists that felt that their business rights were being stomped on. That they shouldn’t have to pay to help reverse the environmental damage they helped cause. Their attitude was that the government was overreaching their authority. Alexander and his team were sent in to help provide additional security at the event. Sadly a member of Alexander’s team had sold out for money to the group. They had planted pipe bombs at the venue’s entrances. They were let in through an underground entrance to the venue and fired on the crowd from the lighting rig above the stage. Alexander was trying to guide the crowd out the exit as panicked people were running everywhere when the bomb at the main entrance went off. Alexander was caught in the blast and thrown 25 yards away. His arms were shredded from the blast. He almost didn’t make it due to blood loss. He made it to the hospital and they managed to save his life but they had to amputate his arms.
Alexander’s recovery was long and painful. His wife was unable to bear looking at his scars and told him she had not signed up to take care of an invalid. She took their daughter and left and filed for divorce. Alexander didn’t blame her. He sunk into depression and his will to fight and carry on left with her. Alexander needed help so he moved in with his father.
His father felt there should be an engineering solution to his issue. Cybernetics was a young science and experimental but they had made strides in prosthetics for people with issues such as Alexander’s. Alexander’s father reached out to a close friend of his that worked in Biotech. Alexander was a good candidate for their new technology. Within a week Alexander was prepped for surgery and received state of the art neural linked controlled cybernetic arms. The cybernetic arms were grafted onto what was left of his organic arms and the nerves integrated with the cybernetic wiring to work with his nervous system. Alexander went to see Candace after he had healed. The arms were covered in a synthetic flesh that matched his natural skin tone but there was no hiding the wide band of ugly scarring where the arms were attached. He had fine motor skills and his reflexes were faster than ever. Candace crushed his heart with a second rejection. She told him that she felt like it would feel like being held by a robot. That she couldn’t do it. He wondered if she had ever loved him at all. Alexander was numb and full of pain as their divorce was finalized. At least she was amicable about his visiting rights. He would not let his daughter grow up thinking he didn’t want a relationship with her. Alexander once more sunk into depression uncertain what to do next.
Once again his father pulled him out of his funk. His father took him to a racetrack and paid for a VIP experience so he could get behind the wheel on a real track in a formula one racer. Alexander came alive as the engine’s roar vibrated as he sped down the track. G forces slammed him from one side of the car to the other as he cornered around the track. Luck was with Alexander that day as a billionaire racing mogul happened to be at the track that day. He had paid for time to test his latest personal car. Alexander had just broken the track record in an old car. The mogul offered him a chance at a driving position. He said he would sponsor him for a year in the Junior Formula League with training and mentorship. Alexander took it since he felt alive again. He did well and placed in the top 5 drivers that season. The next year he stepped up in main league as a driver for the guy and did really well.
So began his career in professional racing. He earned the nickname Bullet on the circuit. He spent a few years visiting his daughter between races. Occasionally Candace would bring her to a race to watch him race. Racing began to shift to a new style, anti-gravity racing, and he was offered a spot on the new team. He was now 26. He was no longer the only enhanced driver on the track. He was still performing well with the occasional win and was in the top ten drivers in the league. His best friend was a driver from Belgium named Audrick Mulder. They met at a race and bonded over beers after the race. Audrick was a charismatic, happy guy who liked to have a good time. The media loved him which helped him gain sponsors. He was handsome and a media favorite. He was also some of his biggest competition on the track. They had a friendly rivalry and were often seen pranking one another in the winner’s circle. Audrick once squirted him with a champagne bottle full of glitter. He was washing glitter out of his hair weeks later. He had slapped a sign on his buddy’s back that read “The beer is on me.” Alexander had found where he fit in the world again. He was regaining his stride.
The team he was driving for was Audrick’s team’s biggest competition. The team had hired a new crew chief and a new engineer. The owner was hungry to win the season. They kept trying to get him to drive more aggressively and use shady tactics on the track. Alexander was not happy about it and told them he wouldn’t do it. They were going into the race of the season. He had gone to visit Audrick to wish him luck the night before the race. He was surprised to see one of their team mechanics leaving Audrick’s team garage. The next day during what should have been the biggest race of his career. He was on track to win the season. Audrick’s vehicle jerked hard to the right and lifted off the track. The crash was horrific and his car exploded as it bounced down the track. Audrick didn’t survive the crash. At first Alexander was shocked, then he thought back to what he had seen the night before. He confronted the team owner about what he had seen demanding the mechanic be questioned. In a fit of rage and heightened emotions, he was fired and he knew deep in his soul that his team had been behind whatever the mechanical failure was that caused the crash. Alexander left racing at the ripe age of 28. The owner sued him for breach of contract even though he was fired. He left racing with little to his name.
He went back to college and became an engineer like his father. He went to work at his father’s company and helped develop new technology to help the world. He worked in energy systems and drive systems. He and his father made a killer team. The most positive thing to happen from this is that he got to spend more time with his daughter. He got her over the summer and she spent the school year with her mother. They always spent time together doing things she liked and they went to a race or two with her grandfather. It was a tradition they upheld every year. Alexander didn’t let many people into his life. He had been hurt so badly that he didn’t really trust many people any more. He had not had a serious relationship since Candace. He had a few drinking buddies but no one that he really let in.
Fast forward and now his daughter was going off to college. She had chosen to stay close to her mother and was attending UCLA. Alexander didn’t care since UCLA was a decent school. What mattered most to him was that she was healthy and happy. He got a phone call that no parent wants to get. His daughter had been on her way to class when she had been hit by a drunk driver. He had flown to LA. She was in ICU and it was touch and go for about 2 weeks. She had been in a coma. She had experienced extreme trauma. When she woke up, the doctor’s confirmed their fears that she was going to be paralyzed from the neck down. There were implants that could help but most of the cybernetics available could only help those paralyzed from the waist down. They still couldn’t do much to help quadriplegics. There was a whole lot more damage and information to help with. There were new experimental options but they were not covered by insurance and they were costly. He didn’t have that kind of money. For the first time in years, he had cried and prayed for a solution.
He was in his hotel room that night on the phone with his father when he got a phone call from someone he hadn’t heard from in years. Audrick’s wife Alicia Mulder was calling him. He told his father he would call him back. Alicia was sobbing and begging for his help. She told him that Paul, Audrick’s son, had just been hired to be the rookie driver for team Valkyrie. She was terrified that what happened to Audrick would happen to him. She had called in some favors and she wanted him to be his crew chief and the team lead. He explained why he couldn’t leave and take the job that his daughter needed him. She was in the hospital. She made a deal with him to get Arianna into an experimental cybernetic program for her condition and pay all expenses if he would take the job. Alexander was poleaxed. He had sworn he would never go back to racing and that den of cutthroat thieves. He couldn’t believe she was asking him to do this for her. As a parent and someone who had lived that life, he understood her fears. He sighed and accepted her proposal. It was Arianna’s best chance for a better quality of life. He agreed to take the job but he refused to leave until Arianna had come through her surgery. Now he had to face his future. He walked to the corner store that night and bought a bottle of the best whiskey they had. He proceeded to get plastered and passed out wondering what the hell he had just agreed too.
Racing DNA
Overview: Alexander always preferred a balanced approach. He felt too many augments could be as big an issue as none at all. He also preferred to start with natural talent and skills and build up. He didn’t believe that more augmentation was necessarily the best for the pilot. He had his own issues and trauma over implants as a guide. The strategy used would depend on the technology and team you had to back that technology up. If you had a top of the line energy system but didn’t have the right person to tune it and help you use it, then it was worthless. He liked reviewing all his options and doing the best with what he had available while looking for better. He believed in getting down to the details, training for all team members, and consistency in performance. The more they all trained on possible scenarios the safer the whole team was. He was a fanatic about safety.
Skills: Alexander is a motor head and an engineer. He has experience as a pilot. He has skills as a pilot. He understands what it takes to win. He has lines he won’t cross though to make that happen.
Special Trait: Alexander has a unique point of view because he has been in the driver’s seat and understands the skill, drive, and psychology necessary to win. He also has an engineering background and can understand the technology and explanations and how to implement that tech and tune to help the team push forward. He has experience on both sides of the equation.
Controversy : Alexander’s exit from racing was controversial. He was sued by the team owner and lost almost everything. His name had been drug through the mud by his former team and the media. He had been so angry at the time, he didn’t try to refute or change public opinion. He had not seen the need to. He had never planned to be back in the limelight again. He was not the most marketable crew chief in the game. He was going to mouth off and say the wrong things in front of the camera at some point. The marketing team has their work cut out for them!He is also fanatical about safety because of his past. He comes across as over the top about it. Others think he takes it too far. In his eyes, he can’t stress it enough.
Likes: Beer, whiskey, racing, speed, classic cars, outdoors, space, swearing,coffee, and dogs Dislikes: Liars, cheating, hates the spotlight, paparazzi, interviews, being forced into emotional vulnerability, sharing feelings, perky people Other Information: Don’t speak to him before he has had his coffee! While he believes in getting an early start, he absolutely can’t be civil before coffee.
Anti-gravity racing is a billion dollar industry not just a sport. Money has a power all its own and many. Power, money, and corruption hide in the shadows of the sport. Alexander has taken over as the Team Principal for Valkyrie AGR Sport. His arrival at Headquarters was dramatic. His first day was particularly trying as he uncovered serious issues that were undermining the Team’s morale and were just plain illegal. Alexander wasted no time in correcting the most egregious wrongdoings happening. He upset a lot of powerful people when he did it. While Alexander’s goals are more altruistic, those who lost minions and power inside the powerful organization that is Valkyrie AGR were not happy to lose some of their control and power. This earned him some enemies while he managed to remove the more obvious ones. There are still those working in the shadows to reduce his influence and remove him so that they can continue enjoying the power he removed from them.
Alexander has reviewed what’s happening with the Team. He has restructured the team which previously had been very siloed into their specialties. The Engineers and Mechanics were merged into one team The Engineering Team is now Co-led by Felix and Helga. The head of the Medical Team was fired and brought up on charges Dr. Zimmerman. Dr. Montgomery has been selected to take over the Medical Team. The head of the Human Resources department was fired and is being investigated for Corporate Espionage and embezzlement. The training personnel and everyone else who works for the racing giant have been moved to a Support Personnel category. Alexander has brought his executive assistant from his previous engineering job to Valkyrie with him. Mabel Brown is now Alexander’s executive assistant. Her appointment has caused some waves at Valkyrie since she had been hired from outside the company jumping over personnel who were already there. Forces inside the team tried to oppose and stop Mabel’s hiring.
Alexander went so far as to make physical interior changes to bring the mechanical and engineering departments together, consolidating resources, tools, materials, and personnel. They now have one larger space where they work collaboratively. This move has already shown benefits in advances and smoother communication between mechanics and engineers. The Engineering team has now bonded together into a new whole. A local bar created a drink and named it after them after a team night out. The results were ideas for a new ship design. The new design focuses on supporting the pilot with faster, more energy efficient engines and new cockpit design to reduce the physical stresses on the pilot.
Alexander restructured how the Medical department worked. They now worked under an elected head who guides and reports back to Alexander. They now have a more open and collaborative work structure. They are also now making use of their talented interns which were being ignored by the previous team lead. The new direction for the Medical department has led to some new ideas in Pilot training and a focus on natural pilot performance enhancement protocols. Only time will show if they are working.
Alexander called in a favor from the European Union Space Agency and has built a new simulator that not only puts his pilots into a race virtually but also simulates the actual g forces and inertia that their bodies experience in a cockpit. This allows them to use the simulator to measure how the physical stresses that the pilots are going through in a more solid and meaningful way. It also allows them to train experiencing those physical forces and how that will impair their performance.
Episode 2
Alexander has the pilots focused on training for each race. The engineering team is making and tweaking the ships as best they can to get the most out of them for each race. They used strategy to finally get some points. They are hoping to do better in Tokyo which is a race their craft should do well on.
Alexander joined the team and came back to racing for his daughter’s sake. Alexander has very mixed feelings about it. He had loved racing but he sure didn’t miss the politics. Alexander is tormented by a crash that killed his best friend. His experience with being pushed into more dangerous and questionable tactics on the racetrack. His belief that his best friend’s death was not accidental and that he somehow was responsible for it haunted his dreams. He had sworn he would never return to racing. Arianna, his daughter, was hit by a car and almost died. She came out of the accident paralyzed from the neck down. Alexander was offered an opportunity to get her experimental state of the art prosthetics that would allow her to have a better quality of life. Standard prosthetics would have allowed her to regain mobility but she would have had to give up being able to feel sensations or have all her limbs amputated replaced by cybernetic ones. This option allowed her to have the option of being able to move her organic body. Rebuilding her nervous system replacing her organic one. Alicia Mulder, Paul Mulder’s mother, agreed to procure and pay for Arianna’s treatment and cybernetics if Alexander would return to racing to mentor and safeguard her son. Alexander agreed as it was the best option for Arianna.
Alexander is divorced. His ex-wife left him because she told him that she couldn’t handle him losing his arms. That his prosthetic arms were like being touched by a robot. Alexander had co-parented his daughter but had no further dealings with his ex-wife. Alexander had always kept this from his daughter. He had not wanted his daughter to resent her mother. Arianna’s mother has shown her true nature. Arianna overheard her mother’s comments to doctors and on the phone. Arianna overhead her mother saying she should have died if she couldn't take care of herself. Her mother was only bringing her home to recover because it would make her look bad since her story had been in the media because of her father. Arianna had asked Alexander to bring her home with him.
Alexander made the arrangements even though it will make him look bad and push back his long term plans for the team by at least 6 months. Alexander has the finished ship design proposals and costs for building them. The Board of Directors have given their okay to move forward but it takes time to build new ship designs. Prototypes had to be built and tested. Designs had to be filed with the Racing Commission. The new ships had to be approved by the league and meet their rules. Not to mention any government regulations as well. Alexander has started sourcing material and is gearing up to recruit the personnel he needs. He has also been making a push for endorsements to bring in the money necessary to pay for new designs. He needs to keep Valkyrie in a positive relationship with the media. Alexander’s decision to bring his daughter back with him and utilize team resources to help her is jeopardizing his reputation.
Episode 3
Alexander confronted Dorian about his lack of performance and poor attitude in Tokyo. He hoped they were both on the same page now. He had completed the contract work necessary to get the endorsement money for the contract so he could begin to hire more engineers. Alexander is grateful to have an influx of capital to work with but he is also dealing with his own emotional turmoil after being in the public's eye again. He has sifted through applications and dossiers and done initial interviews with Dakota Ellis a jet engineer with Pratt & Whitney, Bastijin Velnaar, a Dutch electrical engineer that worked for one of the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturers, and Stephanie Mitsuyo a third generation Japanese American college graduate student who is studying electrical engineering with a specialty in super conductors. Alexander had a visit from Johanna Lipusz, the EU Special Representative for Anti-Gravity Research. She pretty much demanded progress in the form of podiums and wins or else. He was very worried about the or else. He found out that she had the power to threaten Leopold, even he answered to her. They are bringing the top three engineering candidates to Valkyrie Headquarters for a practical skills demonstration. Alexander is hoping that they will find some magic to help them do better in Italy.
Episode 4
After the Italian GP, Alexander heard a rumor that his head engineer Felix Burkhardt was planning on leaving Valkyrie after Luna. Alexander straight up confronted him about it. Felix confirmed it and Alexander let him go. He even wrote him a letter of recognition. He made the decision not to keep him until after later because he felt that was the best tactical decision. He liked Felix and had trusted him. He trusted Felix's integrity but not enough to keep him knowing he was planning to leave. That left Alexander scrambling for a new head engineer. He would have promoted from in house but he didn't have anyone with the right experience to lead that could step up. He had reviewed dossiers on his top three choices and decided to offer the head engineer's position to Cavan Mitchell from England. Cavan started with Silver Apex and had just resigned as the head engineer for Fitzroy. Arianna ran into an issue where she was cornered by press at the Italian GP and was saved by Harrison. Alexander began wooing a new sponsor Quantinium Computers.
Episode 5
Alexander covered the role of head engineer at the Portugal Race. Cavan was in the process of moving his family to Germany. His first official day will be the Monday after the Portugal race. That Monday Alexander is informed that Wulfric's investigation into the CEO has uncovered yet more corporate corruption, embezzlement, fraud, and harassment from the very top. There is a hint that there are ties between the CEO and the former board president but no proof. There is definitive proof that the CEO and Maier were working together to defraud the team. Alexander makes the decision to bring the corruption into the light. Unfortunately it means yet more corruption and chaos for the team. There is a sting set up with authorities to arrest the CEO Peter Brendel. Alexander releases a video to the public asking for their patience and forgiveness. He feels strongly that those injured by the two men deserve some kind of justice even though he knows he is going to face all kinds of backlash from the board of directors, sponsors, and the public. He feels strongly that coming clean now will prevent greater scandal if it were to come out later as the press gets ahold of the court proceedings. He is hoping that the team will weather this latest trauma. He was worried that Cavan would quit over the issue. After expressing his displeasure about being left out of the loop on it, and a strong right hook, he got on with the work of taking over the engineering department. Alexander is slated to go to the moon with the team and will be leaving for training for the journey. Leopold is not happy with some board members. He sent full video of the last board meeting to higher powers wanting them to understand the constraints the team is working under.
While Leopold had been running the board of directors meeting to lure Brendel out for authorities, Alexander had met with Katherine in Wulfric’s office. The only office in the building Alexander was absolutely sure was safe to have a secure meeting. Katherine had been shocked but she recovered quickly as Alexander explained what he wanted to do. Katherine was on board with the plan. It was her idea that Alexander should do a personal video explaining the events to the public. She wanted to frame it as a personal message from Alexander that was backed by the team. Alexander and Katherine watched the fallout of the meeting together in Wulfric’s office. Alexander felt that Katherine had to know everything so she could run damage control. Her job was the public relations and marketing for Team Valkyrie. There really was no positive spin in a situation like this. Brendel and Maier had both been part of the leadership team at Valkyrie which makes their crimes appear to be sanctioned by the team even through ignorance. It was not the kind of thing that made a corporation look good. Alexander was expecting there to be some fallout. He was hoping to minimize it. He knew part of that meant controlling as much of the narrative as possible. Katherine was surprised at Alexander’s willingness to put his face to the message. The events really had nothing to do with Alexander. He had merely been a catalyst that revealed what was happening behind closed doors. Alexander had spent a half hour coming up with the appropriate messaging and filming it in the Media Room. Katherine had then released it with a press release from Valkyrie even as government investigators and agents were crawling all over the building.
Alexander was very grateful that he had managed to finish getting the Mitchells settled in and squared away yesterday. Human Resources was in chaos at the moment. All the human resources staff had been isolated and were being questioned in a conference room on that floor. He hoped Valerie, the new head of the human resources department, was handling the situation well. He felt bad that he couldn’t warn her what was coming but they had to keep it to the need to know. Any hint of what was coming and they feared Brendel would have bolted. He had the connections to disappear. Alexander wanted to see Maier and Brendel charged and behind bars. They needed to suffer for what they had put others through. Alexander knew that this would bring a great deal of scrutiny and attention to the team by authorities. He hoped that after the team weathered this that the team would bounce back stronger. He had no doubt that they could and would weather this current crisis. The only thing he didn’t know was how long it would take and how bad the repercussions would be.
Alexander was beyond stressed and worried. He had wrapped up the immediate work with Katherine. He would need to meet with the rest of the leadership team but he would have to wait till they were done being questioned by investigators. Alexander’s biggest worry was how all this chaos was going to impact Cavan Mitchell. Katherine assured him that she had things well in hand for now. He took off for Engineering. He wanted to explain personally what was happening to Cavan. He hoped he took the explanation well.
Cavan had spent yesterday getting his family settled. He had spent hours at human resources filling out paperwork and doing his training on the company’s policies and procedures. Cavan was a little amused but respected the fact they provided training on how to avoid harassment, how to report it, and how to spot it. They had even quizzed him on the very lengthy employee handbook. He had felt like he was back in college. He almost asked the young woman processing his hire paperwork if he got graded on the quiz. He didn’t think she would find it amusing. He had been shown his office. He had unpacked some things he brought with him. He preferred his own set of tools. He had a collection of trade manuals and books that he referenced from time to time. A few awards for his glory wall. A few pictures of him with pilots in front of ships. The photos showcased his career so far. In the middle of it all was a large picture of his family. They reminded him why he was here.
They had moved in what they needed to be comfortable here in between trips to Sheffield. They hadn’t brought much for them since the apartment came fully equipped. They had needed essentials and had brought some comforts of home with them. Pictures of their family and friends. Some decor to make the place their own. Some toys and entertainment for the children. His wife had brought her photography equipment. She was going to start exploring her passion once more. Cavan knew he would miss England but his family seemed excited about the change and supportive. He knew it would be an adjustment but he had a good feeling about it. Cavan and his wife had enrolled the children in school on Monday.
Once they had gotten that chore out of the way they had all gone to the store to get some essentials. The team had let them use one of the company vehicles. That had been an adventure all by itself. The school was close enough that the children could walk. Mary had walked them to school this morning to help them acclimate and be sure they made it to class alright. The children had gone off to school excited to make new friends. Mary had gone off exploring with her camera. Cavan had spent most of his morning familiarizing himself with his new office. He had been wandering from team member to member introducing himself and finding out what they were working on. He was eager to jump in but Knight was supposed to be here sometime this morning to introduce him to the team and let him know what needed to be done. Cavan had a good idea what needed to be done but he was not familiar with Valkyrie’s ships which meant he could oversee but would have a ton of questions for the engineers and mechanics currently doing the work.
Cavan was getting anxious when a tired and harried looking Alexander Knight finally appeared in Engineering bay. Cavan smiled and went to greet him.
Cavan smiled and shook Alexander's hand warmly as he titled his head and chastised him lightly. “Well look what the cat dragged in! I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about me.”
Alexander winced and a pained look crossed his face. Knight motioned towards Cavan’s office. “I need to speak with you first in your office. I have some news I need to share with you.”
Cavan frowned since he didn’t miss the worried look in Alexander’s eyes. He nodded and led the way into his office. Cavan didn’t miss it when Alexander closed his office door behind him. He took a seat on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms and waited for the other shoe to drop. He could tell something serious was going down.
Alexander sighed and collapsed into the chair in front of Cavan’s desk. He ran his hands absentmindedly through his hair. Alexander straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath and began to explain today’s event. He knew Cavan would need some context since he had not been here for Alexander’s first day in office.
Alexander looked up and met Cavan’s eyes and just began to share the truth as he knew it with a man who had just uprooted his family to come bail the team out. He had no clue how Cavan would take it. Especially after how he was treated at Fitzroy. Alexander’s voice held frustration, anger, and worry as he told the sordid tale of the corruption he had found living at the heart of the team.
Alexander: “Cavan I am going to back up and give you some context. I want us to be able to trust one another. I am going to share some very sensitive information with you. Then we are going to have to go out there and share what’s going on with the rest of your team. The timing for all of this is absolutely horrible but then they say bad news heeds the devil’s timeline and the devil is singing and dancing all over this team. When I was hired, I insisted on a contract that gave him full control over the racing team’s decisions. To be frank after my experiences when I left racing, I didn’t have much trust in corporate leadership. I had worked with the board president before Leopold Koch. I was given an opportunity to be crew chief and asked to do it by Alicia Mulder. I was good friends with her husband and Paul’s father. She was worried that Paul would be sucked in and mistreated by uncaring leadership. She didn’t want them forcing experimental modifications on him. She understands racing is dangerous but its those hidden dangers she was worried about. I swore when I left I would never come back and she knew that. She offered me the only thing that could entice me to come back. My daughter Arianna had been in a nasty car accident. She is now a quadriplegic. The only way for her to have any chance of a decent life was heavy augmentation. Alicia offered to get her the best mods available and get her into the trial if I did this for her. I said yes. I know you understand the importance of family. I had to do it. She is my only child.”
Alexander had relaxed into his story now. He took a deep breath and continued. “My first full day in the office was, well let’s call it eventful. Meetings with the medical team uncovered long term system abuse by the head of the medical team. I had to subdue him with an arm bar and have him escorted from the building. My female mechanics informed me that they were being harassed by other male members of the team. Engineering was doing alright. Felix just needed better support. One of the board members made a sexist remark about my bringing my executive assistant with me at a working team lunch. My first day in office and I almost decked a board member who was replaced the next day. Later that day I discovered that there were significant abuses of power happening by the head of human resources, Bernard Maier. We fired him and his primary accomplice and began investigating his activities. That led myself, Leopold Koch, the board president, and Wulfric Gunderson, our Chief of Security, to discover ties between Maier and the CEO Peter Brendel. Then out of the blue I heard a rumor that Felix had been offered a contract with another team and that he was going to leave us after Luna. I confronted Felix because he is a good man and a great engineer. I didn’t want to lose him. I point blank asked him why he was leaving. He indicated it had to do with how he was treated by the CEO. Our investigation into Maier was being stonewalled by the CEO’s office. After discussing what was happening, Leopold authorized Wulfric to investigate the CEO. We found hard evidence of embezzlement, fraud, and harassment going back years. He and his accomplices had managed to steal millions from the team. I found this out yesterday. I made the decision to take that information to the authorities and work with them to arrest Brendel. Brendel has the means to flee and escape punishment. I owe to all the people they screwed over and abused through the years to seek justice for them. I know the team is going to be brutalized in the media. They love anything that includes me and drama. I am a damn magnet for that shit. Brendel was lured to the office today with the promise of an emergency board meeting. He thought they were going to discuss firing me but it was a trap so that authorities could arrest him. He has been arrested. As we speak, the board of directors is discussing how we are going to handle this. Katherine already has our press release ready to go out. I shot a video asking for patience and understanding as I explain what’s happening. Valkyrie will cooperate fully with the authorities. We are issuing an official apology for the unsanctioned actions of these men and making that public. I just feel like all this…”
He struggled to come up with the words. “I want to build a solid team that cares for each other and helps each other out. I can’t do that if the people in leadership positions are abusive and dismissive of employees that they feel are beneath them. I can’t build a solid foundation for this team over a rotten foundation. I had to get this out in the open. Those people trusted that their leadership had their welfare in mind. They didn’t and it was wrong. I believe you share my vision for what this team should be and where it needs to go. I believe you are the right man for the head engineering position here at Valkyrie. I am beyond grateful to have you here. But I wanted you to hear about the current shit storm coming down on our heads from me. I hope you still want to be here now that you know what’s been going on behind the scenes. I am hopeful this will be the last bit of drama for a while.”
Cavan had sat there listening. He went through a whole gamut of emotions. He followed along and felt sucker punched to learn about all that had been hidden behind the scenes at the team. Cavan had talked to the engineers and mechanics and other workers. Most of them had a good impression of Alexander. He had not walked into this blindly. He couldn’t deny on a professional and personal level that he wanted to be here. He had missed it and this is where he belongs. He was born to lead a team of engineers on a racing team. He had missed the challenge of always seeking to make it better. Cavan began to pace as he listened to Alexander’s story. How dare he wait till now to let him know that there was a shit storm brewing behind the scene? He waited till he had moved his family! That made Cavan angry. He waited till Alexander was through and then walked up and punched him in the gut putting his whole body behind it.
Alexander grunted and the force of the blow knocked the chair backwards with him in it. Cavan stood over him with his hands on his hips and looked down at him.
Cavan: “YOU Bloody arsehole! You waited till I was in and had uprooted my family to share this with me! You want me to trust ya? After that!”
Alexander had the wind knocked out of him. Cavan looked like an avenging Brit with his hat all askew from his frantic habit of playing with his cap to bleed off energy. His cheeks were ruddy from anger and his eyes glinted dangerously. Alexander couldn’t help but laugh even though that hurt at the moment.
Alexander: “I just found out about the CEO yesterday. I couldn’t share it before he was arrested. It was the right thing to do Cavan. What I have seen so far inside this corporation was that no one was really protecting the everyday workers here like they should. I have been working hard to change that culture and get rid of the worst offenders. I had no idea the CEO was one of the worst.”
Cavan began to laugh as Alexander looked ridiculous on his back in the toppled chair. He bent down and gave Alexander a hand up.
Cavan: “I am still mad at you for keeping this from me. If you want me to trust you, it goes both ways Alexander. Don’t keep anything that can impact the team like this from me again.”
He frowned at Alexander and gave him a nasty side look before smiling again.
Cavan: “I respect you for doing the right thing even when it is hard. I respect you even more for standing up for the workers that others overlooked. That is one of the things that pissed me off at Fitzroy. It has been my experience that if you take care of your team, they take care of you. Corpos and teams like Fitzory are failing because of that. For that reason, I will stay. I will work with ye. Don’t hide things from me again though. I won’t go through this again. I don’t have the patience for it.”
Alexander offered his hand to Cavan again.
Alexander: “I can handle that. Maybe next time you want to hit me, we can take it to the gym. We don’t want the team to think you are killing me here.”
Cavan threw back his head and laughed. He clapped Alexander on the shoulder before shaking his hand.
Cavan: “I guess we need to talk to the team. How bad is it?”
Alexander winced.
Alexander: “Well currently there are government investigators all over the building pulling staff into interviews and seizing documents and evidence for their case against Brendel and Maier.”
Alexander and Cavan had left his office and made their way deeper into the Engineering Bay.
Alexander gave a shrill whistle and called out. “Can I have everyone’s attention please? Gather around. I know you are busy but this is important.”
Alexander waited as people made their way over. The background noise faded abruptly as tools, machinery, and chatter ceased. Obviously the rumor mill had beat him. There were a lot of fearful and anxious faces watching him. Alexander sighed and straightened up trying to project confidence as he filled the team in on what was going on.
Alexander nodded to the team in greeting as he started.
Alexander: “Good morning everyone. I will try to keep this as brief as possible. I know there are a lot of preparations happening to get ready for Luna. Especially as we are leaving early for training and to get a week to get acclimated to the gravity and climate there. I will start with the bad news. I can see the rumor mill beat me here.”
He paused and took a read on his audience. Yep word that something was happening had reached engineering.
Alexander continued: “This morning Team Valkyrie CEO Peter Brendel was arrested for embezzlement, fraud, and harassment. The building is currently crawling with government agents and investigators. Some of them may ask to speak with you regarding your employment here. Tell them what they want to know. Tell the truth. I have seen the evidence. Brendel and Maier will be convicted. I know this will put the team in the crosshairs for government regulators and a media shitstorm. But this was the right thing to do. Everyone that Brendel and Maier hurt at this company deserve justice. We can’t get justice for the injured parties by hiding the malicious acts of these two men. The Team will be releasing a statement to the public with an apology for the conduct of these two men. Again it is the right thing to do. If we want the public to trust us, we have to be honest with them. We can’t hide this kind of shit. It always makes the way out into the light. So we will shine a light on this and expose it for what it is. We will own up that there was a failure in leadership with this team. Then we are going to work hard to figure out ways to ensure this kind of bullshit doesn’t happen again. Things will be chaotic for a bit. I am hopeful we will finally get some drama free time after this. I think I deserve a break, don’t you?”
Alexander gave them a wry smile as they all laughed along with him. He could see the tension lessen and the worry reduce a little. It was still there but at least the fear was gone. Alexander gave them a few moments to absorb that bombshell. He gave them all a big smile before he gave them the good news.
Alexander: “There is some good news! I want to introduce you all to our new Chief Engineer, Cavan Mitchell. Cavan got his start in Formula AG at Silver Apex. He then was the head engineer at Fitzroy. He left Fitzroy because they didn’t treat their engineers and mechanics well. I promised him we would do better. And we will! So the good news is that I found an experienced engineer to replace Felix. Cavan is not Felix. I am sure there will be changes. Cavan is more of a leader and all hands on deck kind of guy. I like that about him. You will probably be asked to contribute more of your own ideas. Cavan I am sure has some tricks to teach you all. And there is even more good news!” Alexander waited as they all laughed once more. “He is bringing two of his engineers with him that Fitzroy let go. They will be joining us in a few weeks if all goes well.”
This time Alexander laughed as there were cheers throughout the bay. Alexander smiled and looked around for Helga. He spotted her and motioned her forward. “Okay folks thank you for all your hard work. That’s all the news I have for now. Cavan will be around to chat with you all in a bit. Helga, can you join us!”
Cavan had stood by Alexander’s side and listened as he made his announcements to the team. He stood with a neutral expression while Alexander explained about the CEO’s arrest. He smiled and waved as he was introduced. He was gratified to see curious looks and a few excited ones. A beautiful petite blonde woman in a Team Valkyrie coverall walked towards them. She smiled at Knight and gave him a respectful nod.
Alexander returned it and smiled at the woman. “Helga meet Cavan. Cavan this is Helga Stumpf our lead mechanic. While you are in charge of the engineering team, Helga leads the mechanics. So you actually lead this section together. She oversees the mechanics allowing you to focus on the engineers. Both teams work in the same bay because it just makes sense logistically. When I got here they had separate working areas and it was causing confusion, communication breakdowns, and inventory issues. So I will leave you to get to know one another. I know there is a great deal to get done in a short period of time as we prepare the ship for lunar gravity and dust. You will need to discuss which team members will pull the short straws to get the extended stay on the moon. Remember whoever goes has to attend the mandatory training by the ESU. We will be on the moon for a week before the race. Cavan I am not going to ask you to go. I plan to go and will be the onsite engineer in case we need anything. Helga figure out which mechanics you want to send. Let me know so I can get them details on traveling and make sure they have the appropriate gear. Any questions?”
Cavan felt like he had been run over by a tornado. He just laughed and offered a handshake to Helga. “Helga, it is a pleasure to meet you. I see we already have a lot to do. Would you mind taking me around and sharing what everyone is working on and introducing me?”
Helga just laughed and shook her head at Knight. As always he was moving at light speed around them as they struggled to keep up. “Thanks Alexander. I will take care of Cavan.”
Alexander smiled and nodded. “I know you will. Cavan fair warning she has a mean right hook and knows how to use those wrenches!”
Cavan blinked at that and looked confused for a moment. “Alexander I know better than to question if a mechanic knows how to use their tools. Get out of here before you cause any more trouble today!”
Alexander left laughing with a wave over his shoulder. Well at least the engineers and mechanics seemed to take the news alright. He wasn’t ready to hear how the rest of the company was doing. As he left he heard Helga telling Cavan about the bar that had created a drink in their honor. Alexander just laughed and wondered if he should give the Drunken Dragon a heads up.
While Alexander was working hard to improve team morale and help them comply with the government regulators and investigators pouring through the building, Leopold had been waging war with the board of directors. He had managed to convince them that Alexander’s plan was appropriate as it was the law and the right thing to do. The company would need to identify individuals that had been injured parties and offer an apology and some kind of compensation. Leopold had already added to the heavy lift their legal team was going through at the moment. Leopold also shot Johanna Lipusv a copy of the charges and search warrant. A brief summary of findings and the plan of action for moving forward. He also included the raw uncut footage of the board of directors meeting for her to review. He asked for any help she might be as the team is getting ready to leave for the moon. He also noted her colleagues' behavior in the meeting for her to review. He added that he wanted to be transparent about the challenges the team was facing and what they were doing about it.
Media
Victory Laps Racing News
Controversy seems to be following Alexander Knight and Team Valkyrie AGR Sport. The announcement by the team of the arrest of the CEO has rocked the Formula AG Racing world. Many are calling for more transparency from the team and for the racing commision to take a closer look at the team. Others are applauding the team’s honesty in their statement and claim it points to good integrity. Victory Laps requested a comment from the racing commision about whether they planned to impose any sanctions or investigate the matter at Team Valkyrie. The racing commision declined to comment at this time. Public response to the announcement has been just as mixed and volatile.
OfficeDrone#12: It was a chaotic day at Valkyrie. SuperfanAGR54: I like that Knight was open about what was happening inside the team. DantheMan: The breakdown in leadership seems like it has been building for a while. BatDave: Justice for Valkyrie Workers. Superfan2075: If the CEO was doing that, what else has been going on behind the scenes at Valkyrie? DadBod89: #JusticeforWorkers Hater101: The racing commission should at least investigate to ensure that no regulations for racing were violated. Papabear34: #Speechless Nana2050: #RespectforKnight GeorgeFly: #RespectforKnight ValkyrieFan56: I feel duped. My favorite team had this going on behind the scenes? Weedhead81: Relax people! Smoke a bowl! SexyM@m@5: No response from Dorian Paulmulder4eva: No response from Paul either Britball12: Corpo Management Sucks! !YouSlow!: Disgusted with Valkyrie’s leadership. xImFasterthanUx: #RespectforKnight AGInthusiast: I just want to hear about the racing. I don’t care about this political BS. micheal650004: #RespectforKnight Bertha: #ValkyrieFails Nobody404:Valkyrie’s troubles started before Knight got there. It is because of Knight that these abuses are coming to light. Please note the person under arrest is the CEO not Knight. Obviously the CEO is the guilty party.
Alexander had very little time to get a shit ton of work done. He was back in the office early Monday morning after the Portugal race. While he was off supervising the race team, Cavan Mitchell was in the process of packing up and moving his family to Germany after they settled on a contract to finish out the season with an option for renegotiating and extending the contract at the end of the season. The family would live in one of the furnished apartments at headquarters. This would speed up and reduce what they felt they needed to bring with them. There was still the business of changing schools for the children, packing what they needed to be comfortable here in Germany. The Mitchells were supposed to move in today. They were expected on a flight from England at 11:25 later this morning with a small cargo pod of belongings.
Mabel had once again proven why Alexander Knight trusted her and sung her praises. He walked in and discovered she had already taken the initiative to run background checks on the two engineers that Cavan had asked him to make offers to. He understood from Cavan that they had walked out when he did. They were free agents. He had legal looking over their contracts to make sure there were no legal loopholes that could bite them later if Fitzroy took exception to the hiring. Mabel had also compiled a list of potential engineers to replace the others that Valkyrie had lost when Felix had left. Finlay Wallace was a British Aerodynamics Engineer and Miss Olivia Chang was a British/Chinese Electrical Engineer. That left Alexander needing a new Neural Interface Systems Engineer. That would at least get his engineering compliment back to where it had been prior to Felix quitting. Leopold was still not sold on the three engineers that Alexander had brought for a test run. They were still debating how effective they would be. Alexander had to acknowledge that Cavan should be brought in on these decisions as well.
After reviewing the information and resumes of Olivia and Finlay Alexander had Mabel contact them to arrange for interviews later in the week. He looked over the dossiers and resumes Mabel had put together as potential replacements for the Neural Interface Engineer. Gaylord Chaveau was a French Engineer. He was older and had been working with Neural Interfaces for a long time for a French augmentations manufacturer that developed neural interfaces for public transit drivers and pilots. His work and experience was solid but nothing creative or extraordinary to bring attention to him. Cillian Kilpatrick was an Irish neural interface engineer that was currently working for the Irish government in neural interface regulation enforcement. He was their technical advisor. His job meant he was abreast of all current updated interface systems and illegal ones. That experience might come in handy and intrigued Alexander. The last person to make Mabel’s shortlist was a Polish woman Daria Krupnik. Daria worked for a Polish neural interface manufacturer for a company that designed medical equipment. Her field of expertise was interfaces that ran medical equipment like MRI scanners, automated surgical suites, and full body MRA scanners. It was a different area than was typical for hiring for a Formula AG team. He decided to wait and go over the potential hires with Cavan.
With the immediate staffing needs in a holding pattern, he turned his attention to getting his team to the moon for the Luna race. He called his contact at the ESU to ensure that training was scheduled for all personnel going to the moon race. He arranged for the team to get a week on the moon prior to the race. That would give his pilots time to adjust to the gravity and the engineers a chance to make adjustments for the harsh environment of the moon. The ship’s seals had to be double checked as they would need to hold atmosphere. There were logistics to consider as well. The team plane was set up to double as a space plane as well. The plane would have to be prepped with an external fuel tank to ensure they had enough fuel to get there and back. They needed to be sure the team had enough prepared meals ready to go for the time they would be gone. The prepared meals would be heat and serve or grab and go. They needed to remember the lack of gravity as well. Everyone had to take training on navigating in zero gravity, use of space suits, emergency protocols, and more.
Once Alexander ensured that preparations were on track for leaving for Luna in a few days, he turned his attention to sponsorships. Alexander was hopeful that he could still get new ships on track for the next season at the latest. He knew they would have to go back to design and start over. It would still require a huge influx of cash. More income kept the board happy as well. He reached out to Quantinium Computer Systems and invited the CEO and his assistant for a tour of the Valkyrie Headquarters so he could gauge the CEO’s interest in a partnership on new computer systems for their ships. Many racing teams tend to use the same computer system vendors because it is expensive to develop, making it cheaper to buy a system that is already built, working, and proven. Alexander couldn’t help thinking that might be a way for them to improve their ELS systems. Improved security was something high on Alexander’s mind. He wanted to prevent other teams from being able to exploit any weaknesses they discovered in a shared system.
Wulfric whistled as he reviewed the information he had been able to retrieve with Leopold’s help. The CEO was up to his ears in illegal stuff. Wulfric found emails between the CEO and Maier where he was knowledgeable and complicit about the abuses from the former Human Resources Manager and the embezzlement. It was no wonder that Maier felt he was untouchable. Wulfric had started an information systems audit with an outside specialist hired discreetly by Leopold outside of Valkyrie. Their consultant found a server on the premises tied into the corporate network but hidden with restricted access. After a hardwire work around, the information on the server was accessed. The hidden server was only accessible by the CEO and had a remote login that was untraceable. They thought it was only accessible to them and held all their activities. Wulfric had immediately copied the evidence. He set up a meeting with Alexander and Leopold.
Alexander had been surprised to get a meeting request from Wulfric. Alexander just knew, he had a feeling in his gut that it would not be good news. He tried to remain calm and cool as he made his way to Wulfric’s office. Alexander knocked on the door jam to Wulfric’s office as the door was open. Wulfric looked up and motioned Alexander inside as he finished what he was doing. Alexander took a seat across from Wulfric’s desk. He was just about to ask why he was there when Leopold strode into the room closing the door behind him looking grim. Leopold took the seat next to Alexander as he looked at Wulfric expectantly.
Alexander just slunk down in his seat. If he had known it was going to be one of those meetings, he would have brought the good Scotch with him. Wulfric looked up and eyed each one of the men before opening his bottom drawer and pulling out three crystal tumblers and a bottle of Glenlivet. He silently poured a generous amount in each glass before handing them each a glass. Alexander raised an eyebrow and took a healthy swig.
Alexander: “It’s going to be one of those conversations then. Okay hit me with it.”
Alexander braced. He didn’t think it could be much worse than losing Felix. Alexander was surprised when Leopold tossed back the entire glass before setting it back on the table.
Leopold nodded at Wulfric in encouragement. “How bad is it?”
Wulfric took a bracing drink before he began laying it out for the both of them.
“Well our investigation into the CEO has borne fruit. The specialist you helped me hire found a completely hidden server on the premises set up for use by the CEO with a remote login . The CEO was in cahoots with Maier. The CEO was the one giving orders to Maier in Human Resources. Maier was being paid very well to help him on his power trip. There are hints that the CEO was taking orders from someone else but the emails are carefully worded and from an anonymous account with a VPN and spoofed IP address. So there is no proof of ties to anyone from the board. They used the CEO and Maier as their cutouts to do their dirty work. There is proof of significant embezzlement from the team. Endorsements, sponsorship deals where the money was funneled into private accounts. The money that went astray is in the millions. The CEO was doctoring the books to show the money was being funneled into research and development that went nowhere or payroll for nonexistent employees. He was quite creative. This also implies that there was someone in the accounting department helping them. My guess is the CFO who quit shortly after Alexander came on board. He quit the same day Maier was fired. That was pretty convenient timing. They believed their server was secure and would never be found as it was onsite and looked just like part of Valkyrie’s server bank. Externally there was nothing to flag it as an issue for IT to look closer at. The embezzlement and abuse of the company has been going on for years. The CEO is getting nervous because Alexander fired Maier and ordered him investigated. He probably thinks it's only time before Alexander finds evidence on him. The CEO has been working against Alexander behind his back. There are emails from the CEO to the board members where he has been sharing only the negative news about Alexander and the team. He has been trying to convince the board to fire Alexander. He was using Felix Burkhart leaving as proof that Alexander is mismanaging the team. We got to this just in time. I have secured the evidence. How do you want to proceed?”
Wulfric took a slow savoring drink while he waited for the inevitable explosion.
The color drained from Alexander’s face. He tossed back the rest of his drink grateful for the burning that helped him take a deep breath. Alexander was not stupid. Wulfric had said millions. They had managed to siphon off millions and that was plural. People had killed each other for much less. Alexander felt like all his fears were proving true. This is why he had insisted on the contract he did.
Leopold had a pained expression on his face. “I knew it was going to be bad but I had no idea it went that far.”
Alexander: “Valkyrie is already being crucified in the press for all the “chaos” that has happened since I started. This could shake investor and sponsor confidence in the team. There are obviously ties to others that we cannot prove. That worries me. Who else is trying to bleed the team dry of resources and money?”
Leopold looked at Alexander. “I had heard about the CEO lobbying against you to some of the board members who are not your biggest fans. I thought it was just sour grapes. One of the other board members came to me with a rumor. They asked me if I was still supporting you given that you were responsible for Felix leaving. I gave them the truth of that situation. They told me that the CEO had approached them for support to force an emergency meeting of the board and a vote of no confidence in your management while you are away for the race at Luna. You will be out of the office for a prolonged stretch of time and unable to refute any charges he brings against you. I had planned to discuss this with you both but Wulfric had already called a meeting.”
The men all exchanged worried glances. The silence in the office was almost deafening in its intensity.
Alexander thought about all the employees who had suffered abuse at the hands of Zimmerman, the CEO, and Maier. He couldn’t keep this quiet even if it meant he was butchered in the press once more. This was not just about him. They already were short on time to get ready for Luna but he had to deal with this issue. The men deserved to serve time. He couldn’t afford a lengthy investigation into the racing team though. This was going to bring the government regulators down on the team. Alexander looked at Leopold who looked shocked and somewhat lost. Alexander stood up and began pacing.
Alexander: “Leopold I know this can hurt the team and I will take full responsibility for this decision. I can’t in good conscience let those men get away with this. We turn it all over to the authorities. We will release a press statement of facts about what was uncovered. We will tell the public the truth and it will cause waves. We do it with the message of justice for wronged employees. We want honesty and transparency with the public. The message for the government regulators is full cooperation and have done our due diligence as a company to rectify the situation as soon as it was discovered. Unfortunately I cannot be in two places at once. I will deal with the situation and get the ball rolling until I have to leave for training for Luna. Leopold I am going to have to ask you to deal with things here while I am on the moon. What are your thoughts?”
Wulfric tossed back the last of drink before his eyes trailed Alexander’s pacing form.
Wulfric: “The CEO has the means to flee. We need to take this directly to the authorities and have them in position to arrest him before he finds out we know.”
Leopold seemed to be recovering from his shock. He nodded. “I appreciate your willingness to accept the blame Alexander. This mess is not your making. Hopefully we can use that in your favor somehow with the press. I will deal with the board but we are not telling them until the authorities have the CEO in cuffs.I think we should play into the CEO’s hands. I will call an emergency board meeting. We will have the authorities onsite with an arrest warrant.”
Alexander nodded. “Agreed. Wulfric I will need a copy of the evidence. I will go to the authorities with it.”
Wulfric snorted. “Alexander, you are the last person who should take it. You are the one probably watched the closest. I will take it. The CEO is probably keeping tabs on you especially when you are here. He has access to the security systems. My office is the only place he doesn’t have access to.”
Alexander looked at Leopold. “Are you sure you can handle this while I am on the moon?”
Leopold nodded. “You need to go. Cavan is too new. He is still meshing with the team. They will need your leadership with a smaller staff available.”
Wulfric: “Well Alexander, life has not been dull since you started.”
Alexander gave Wulfric a sharp look before he grumbled. “I could do with a little less excitement. I feel like I am running from one disaster to the next since I started.”
Both men chuckled at how disgruntled and grumpy Alexander sounded.
Tuesday 9th May 2094 Team Valkyrie HQ
10:00am
Wulfric had spent most of the evening with the local authorities reviewing what they knew and providing all the evidence. He walked the investigators through it and helped them set up the sting for the following day.
Leopold had called an emergency meeting of the Board for 10am the following morning. The reason he stated was to review recent events and Alexander’s performance. He hinted that there was new information for the board to consider. He said he would only reveal it at the meeting that it was too sensitive for an electronic meeting. Leopold had met with investigators after leaving headquarters later that evening. He too answered all their questions. Leopold explained that they believed Alexander was under surveillance or he would have joined them. That they didn't want to tip Brendel off that anything was wrong.
The following day arrived early. Alexander had only managed to get a little bit of sleep. He knew there would be hell to pay later because he didn’t share the information with Mabel. He was already planning his apology but he would never put her in harm's way. He didn’t trust the CEO Peter Brendel to behave any better than Zimmerman had when he had been confronted. Zimmerman had been violent and had to be subdued. He thought he was untouchable just like Brendel. He had no idea how the man would react when he was cornered. The investigators were sneaked into the building and into Wulfric’s office. Alexander had met them there and answered all their questions. It was decided that Alexander would not go to the meeting. He would watch from Wulfric’s office on the camera system in the conference room. Leopold would call the meeting to order. Wulfric would lead the investigators into the room once Leopold gave the signal that everyone was there. The trap had been baited and set for Brendel.
Leopold had taken a position at the head of the conference table facing the doorway. He would be able to see the door and everyone as they took their seats. Leopold had a cup of tea and was sipping it as board members began to file in. Many complained about the short notice, a few were gleeful and Leopold’s eyes hardened as he noted who they were. Most of them stopped to help themselves to coffee or tea. Leopold kept the serious neutral look on his face. He almost lost his cool when Peter Brendel strolled into the meeting looking eager and smug. Leopold waited as the last few board members were seated. He looked up at the camera and nodded which was the prearranged signal for Wulfric to escort the investigators in.
Leopold looked around the table and took a deep breath as he stalled for the amount of time it would take for the investigators and supporting officers to get into place. They were taking no chances that Brendel could get away or destroy evidence. Although Wulfric had already given that to investigators. They indicated that they would still investigate to ensure that they had all the evidence possible against Brendel. Leopold began the meeting his voice holding a serious tone.
Leopold: “Thank you all for coming on short notice. I have uncovered some particularly disturbing news that requires the board’s attention and action. It was not something I could share freely over email or phone.”
Brendel leaned forward and the look on his face was serious but there was a gleeful glint in his eye.
Brendel: “From your message, I assume you have more evidence of Alexander Knight’s appalling performance to share with the board. Really Leopold, I don’t understand why you continue to champion him. Why, we have had more emergency board meetings since he joined than in the six months prior to his hiring. I told you hiring Knight and giving him that level of control was a very bad idea. The man is clueless about business.”
Leopold looked around the table, his eyes flitting from face to face. Before Leopold could reply, Dietrich Steindl jumped in. “Knight has been out of control since he got here, making changes with no input from the board, firing long term employees without board consent, deciding what endorsements and sponsorships the team needs. He has taken all those decisions away from the board and what do we have to show for it?”
Matteo Aldenburg jumped on the bandwagon next. “Instead of the team receiving positive press, they are focused on Knight’s personal drama with his daughter. The negativity and conspiracy theorists had a field day with that one. We can’t forget losing Felix Burkhart, an amazing and respected engineer.”
Leopold didn’t bother to hide his frustration as he took control of the meeting back. He noted that Brendel was looking pleased with himself.
Leopold: “One of the reasons I called this meeting was so we could discuss these issues. There seems to be some misunderstanding regarding these events. I want to be sure that the board is making decisions with all the CORRECT information. We wouldn’t want to make hasty decisions based on false data.”
Nielsen jumped in this time. “Leopold, what are you implying?”
Brendel sneered and jumped to his feet. “Leopold, you seem to be Knight’s only fan on this board. How can you continue to cover for him? Are you embarrassed because Knight was your idea? Think about the good of the team! You have to see that Knight is dragging the team down? If you can’t see that, then maybe you should step down as the board president.”
Leopold understood then that Brendel had not just been setting Alexander up for a fall but himself along with him. He looked around the table. He just knew that Brendel had been feeding this line of bullshit to his fellow board members. He made Leopold sound like Alexander’s sycophant. Ferrari, Dupont, Olsson, and Virtanen were all looking confused and surprised. Alvarez and Jorgensen looked worried. Nielsen, Aldenburg, Saar, Stiendl, and Brendel looked angry and expectant. Before the board meeting could devolve any further there was a brief knock at the door as it was immediately opened. Wulfric held the door open as the two investigators and two uniformed law enforcement officers entered the room. Wulfric then shut the door behind him and locked it.
Brendel was instantly on his feet. His face red with rage as he turned on Wulfric with fists clenched at his sides. “You might be the Chief of Security but you have no right to interrupt a closed board meeting, Mr. Gunderson.”
Wulfric very calmly met Brendel’s angry glare. He turned his attention to the board. “My sincerest apologies for the interruption but these law enforcement officers have a warrant and legal right to enter. They are here investigating a matter that will be of interest to the board.” Wulfric motioned to the two investigators forward with a hand gesture. “Investigators if you please.”
The investigative lead officer was wearing a nice suit and had his badge of office on a lanyard around his neck. “My apologies for interrupting your meeting. This won’t take long. Please take your seats.”
One of the uniformed officers took up a post in front of the locked door. One took up a spot behind Brendel against the wall. The two investigators made their way to the front of the room where they stood on either side of Leopold. Leopold nodded to them and took his seat. He watched everyone’s faces as the investigator began.
“My name is officer Braeder. I am here to inform you that my office will be conducting a close audit of all Team Valkyrie AGR financial and employment records for the last 5 years. Mr. Peter Brendel you are under arrest for fraud, embezzlement, and harassment. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
Before he could get any further Brendel was on his feet yelling. “You can’t arrest me! I am the CEO. I have done nothing wrong. You have no proof!” Brendel looked angry but panic was setting in. “I don’t have to submit to this in my own office. I don’t have to listen to you. How can the board sit here and do nothing! Help me!” Leopold noted that he was looking at Nielsen, Aldenburg, Saar, and Steindl for help.
The officer sighed and motioned to the uniformed officer behind Brendel. “Subdue him and cuff him.” He pulled out a sheaf of documents and handed them over to Leopold. “Here is the search warrant for the premises, and a copy of the arrest warrant with the list of charges.” He turned back to the officer who had quite handily wrestled a fighting Brendel to the floor and was cuffing him with his knee in the middle of his back. He pulled the still ranting man to his feet. “Be sure to finish reading him his rights. Start over and get it on camera so he can’t claim he was not informed.”
The officer nodded and began to guide Brendel towards the door. His partner came and took Brendel’s other arm. “Keep it up Brendel and we will hobble you and carry you out of here.”
Wulfric helpfully unlocked the door and held it open for the officers. Brendel continued to claim his innocence. He was being frog marched out and began to put on an indignant air as if he had been wronged somehow.
The investigators looked over at the board members who watched as Brendel was led out of the room. “Our office expects Valkyrie to comply with the search warrant and grant us complete access to the information and areas requested.”
Leopold looked over the paperwork as a formality. He nodded to the investigator. “I will keep these for our legal team to review. In the meantime. Mr. Gunderson our Chief of Security will see to it that you have access to what you require. Valkyrie will comply and cooperate with your office investigator.” Leopold gave Wulfric a nod and indicated him with a pointed finger. The others didn’t need to know that they had already been introduced.
The investigative officer looked around the table at the board members. “This is an ongoing police investigation. You are not to discuss this case or the charges with anyone outside of this room. We will need some time to dig deeper into this matter but I am putting you all on notice that our office will be in touch to arrange interviews for each of you. We expect all of you to show up for your designated interview appointment. As of right now we are not investigating you but any dealings you had with Mr. Brendel. That may change depending on what we find during the course of this investigation. As I speak officers are already seizing records and documents from Mr. Brendel’s office. We need to get to work now. Mr. Koch has our contact information. I bid you good day.”
The two investigators left the room. Silence followed in their wake. Leopold looked around the table. He looked each of them in the eyes. All of them looked shocked and a few looked nervous as the investigator left.
Steindl was the first one to break the silence. His voice was condescending as he spat out. “What the hell just happened? I thought we were here to discuss firing Knight.”
Leopold coldly stared Steindl down. “Were you not paying attention? Brendel has been arrested for embezzlement. Not just a little but millions! Millions that were stolen from this company. Brendel was complicit in Maier’s abuse of his office. You have just been told that our corporation is being investigated for criminal activity by its CEO and all you can focus on is your desire to remove Knight?”
Leopold had to give it to Steindl, he had nerve. He met Leopold’s eyes with an angry glare and didn’t waver under his verbal backlash. Leopold sneered and crossed his arms. He was done playing nice. “Let’s talk about that then since you insist. Knight was not the reason Felix Burkhart left. By his own words, Burkhart left because of Brendel. Knight pivoted and managed to pull a minor miracle off when he managed to replace the head engineer with an experienced man in less than two weeks! The team had its first win at Portugal. The team finally made the podium this season. Progress has been made. You might not like his methods Stiendl but his results are there.”
Steindl continued to glare at Leopold. Leopold continued to meet his stare. “Well Steindl I will be sure to report back to Biomatter International that you were more concerned about your distaste of Knight’s management style than the fact that the CEO had embezzled millions from the company that they have a share in. That you didn’t care that the corporation was being investigated for violations in labor law by the same CEO. You can leave now since you would rather cast blame on an innocent man doing his job rather than do yours.”
Steindl glared at Leopold. “You have no right to remove me from this meeting.”
Leopold smiled wickedly and turned to Wulfric. “Mr. Gunderson please remove Mr. Steindl from the building. Please be sure to send a copy of this recording to his supervisor at Biomatter International. I am sure they will be very interested to see how he has handled their interests.”
Wulfric just grinned and nodded. “With pleasure Mr. Koch.” Wulfric walked over to Stiendl. “Are you coming willingly or the hard way?” Wulfric was quietly hoping he chose the hard way. Stiendl rose and left in angry strides but with more dignity than Brendel. Wulfric escorted him from the room, closing the door behind him once more.
Leopold glared at the rest of the board members. “Does anyone else want to complain or are we going to discuss how to handle this latest disaster?”
Leopold waited expecting more of the dissenters to complain. He was pleasantly surprised when they remained quiet. Leopold nodded to the board and took a deep breath to calm down.
Leopold: “Now. I believe our best course of action is to control the narrative. We should release this to the press ourselves in a statement. Our messaging should be that we are cooperating with authorities. We took action to correct the mistakes of Mr. Brendel as soon as they were discovered. We want to be transparent with the public. Our honesty in this matter should carry some weight with them. Hopefully that will carry weight with our sponsors and investors.”
The meeting went as expected after that. Everyone had their opinion about what course of action they should take and what the messaging should be. Leopold didn’t envy Katherine who would be the one to weather the worst of this storm. The media were going to be in a frenzy.
Media
Team Valkyrie AGR @TeamValkyrie:
Team Valkyrie AGR Sport is shocked and saddened to have to inform the public that Peter Brendel the CEO of Valkyrie AGR Sport has been arrested on embezzlement, fraud, and harassment charges. Valkyrie AGR Sport is cooperating fully with the investigation. Please watch the video by Crew Chief Alexander Knight for more details.
[A video of Alexander Knight speaking to the public about the arrest of the CEO and the subsequent investigation. Alexander appears tired on camera. He is sitting at the Valkyrie news desk. He is wearing a Team Valkyrie button up shirt. Alexander looks right into the camera. It feels as if he is talking directly to you on the other side of the screen. His voice is serious and has a sad tone. Dialogue below]
“Good Evening. It is my duty to inform you that the CEO of Valkyrie AGR Sport has been arrested for embezzlement, fraud, and harassment. Team Valkyrie AGR Sport takes our duty to uphold the public trust seriously. Team leadership moved quickly to support the investigation and rectify the gross misdeeds of the former CEO Peter Brendel. His actions were not sanctioned or condoned by the team’s Board of Directors. Brendel acted in conjunction with the former Chief Human Resource Officer Bernard Maier. It was while investigating Maier’s activity that it was discovered that the CEO had condoned his activity and was complicit in his illegal activities. Team Valkyrie is embarrassed and enraged by the actions of these former employees. Our employees are all important, deserving of respect, and a safe place to work. We value our team members and are striving to ensure something like this will never happen again at Valkyrie. We want to apologize to any employees past or present who were hurt by these individuals. While Valkyrie is embarrassed by the unsanctioned actions of these previous employees, we are sharing this information with the public because we believe you deserve honesty. How can you cheer for a team you can’t trust? We sincerely hope that our honesty and integrity in dealing with this matter will help to restore your trust and faith in our team. My sincerest apologies on behalf of the team."
OfficeDrone#12: Insiders at Valkyrie can confirm that investigators swarmed the corporate offices today. SuperfanAGR54: I don’t know what to say to this. DantheMan: WTF!? BatDave: Justice is served. Superfan2075: WOW! I didn’t see that coming. DadBod89: No one saw that coming! Hater101: Valkyrie can’t seem to get its act together. What is going on there? Papabear34: #Speechless Nana2050: Knight is apologizing but it was not his fault. GeorgeFly: #RespectKnight ValkyrieFan56: Knight has big cajones! Weedhead81: Dude! I wouldn’t expect a Corpo to apologize. SexyM@m@5: Was Dorian hurt by this Corpo? Paulmulder4eva: Will Valkyrie still race at Luna? Britball12: Corpos should stay out of Formula AG. !YouSlow!: Shame on Valkyrie! xImFasterthanUx: No wonder Valkyrie is struggling with a Gonk like that as CEO. AGInthusiast: Man can we please get more than one positive week at Valkyrie without some negative drama happening? micheal650004: You have to respect Knight for sharing what was happening. I like that he was honest about it. Bertha:So it's not just poor management by Knight but all of Team Valkyrie’s leadership. #ValkyrieFails Nobody404:I find it interesting that Alexander Knight is being blamed for all the things happening at Valkyrie AGR. CEO Peter Brendel has been in that position at Valkyrie for 5 years! Both Maier and Brendel were there long before Knight was hired. Maybe Knight is the reason this corruption is surfacing? Is Knight fighting the good fight?
I am experienced roleplayer returning to online roleplay after 10+ year break. I have missed roleplaying and the creative outlet it is for me. I am interested in casual roleplay. I consider myself a decent writer and I will put effort into my writing. I am not into writing a novel for one post though. Descriptive, character building, engaging, yes. I will always write at least 2 paragraphs unless it is a quick fire session revolving around dialogue over private messages. I am a fairly laid back person and don't want to be a grammar nazi. I believe in quality over quantity. Roleplaying is a hobby and a escape from real life pressures.
[color=00aeef]Genres I am interested in: [/color]
Fantasy
Middle Ages
Science Fiction
Vampires
Shapeshifters
Crime Drama
[color=00aeef]Fandoms I am interested in:[/color]
Pokemon
Harry Potter
Anita Blake
Dragonriders of Pern
Star Wars
I don't mind roleplaying romance but I am not looking for smut. It has to make sense for the roleplay. I am okay with a fade to black moment instead of roleplaying it out. For me its about the story and the character. I am open to roleplaying it out.
I am in the Pacific Standard Timezone. I work full time and will be seen in the evenings and weekends online.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I am experienced roleplayer returning to online roleplay after 10+ year break. I have missed roleplaying and the creative outlet it is for me. I am interested in casual roleplay. I consider myself a decent writer and I will put effort into my writing. I am not into writing a novel for one post though. Descriptive, character building, engaging, yes. I will always write at least 2 paragraphs unless it is a quick fire session revolving around dialogue over private messages. I am a fairly laid back person and don't want to be a grammar nazi. I believe in quality over quantity. Roleplaying is a hobby and a escape from real life pressures. <br><br><font color="#00aeef">Genres I am interested in: </font><br>Fantasy<br>Middle Ages <br>Science Fiction <br>Vampires <br>Shapeshifters <br>Crime Drama<br><br><font color="#00aeef">Fandoms I am interested in:</font><br>Pokemon<br>Harry Potter <br>Anita Blake <br>Dragonriders of Pern <br>Star Wars <br><br>I don't mind roleplaying romance but I am not looking for smut. It has to make sense for the roleplay. I am okay with a fade to black moment instead of roleplaying it out. For me its about the story and the character. I am open to roleplaying it out. <br><br>I am in the Pacific Standard Timezone. I work full time and will be seen in the evenings and weekends online.</div>
Member
FourtyTwo
wintersoldier
Pen Name
Lunamaria Hawke
Eventua
Snowdrops
Ivar
Sky Blue
Triantafyllo
